This article by Elliott Rusanow, CEO –Scentre Group, forms part of SCN’s annual CEO Outlook feature published in Big Guns 2024. Premium members can view the full digital magazine here. 

We have excellent momentum on our strategy to create the places and experiences more people choose to come, more often and for longer. Our deliberate focus on having more people spend their time in our 42 Westfield destinations is delivering strong operating performance for our business.

It continues to guide our decision-making and our ambition to grow and be essential to people, communities and the businesses that interact with them.

For more than 60 years, the Westfield brand and experience has been an integral part of our local communities.

Our Westfield destinations across Australia and New Zealand are places people visit every day for social connection, services and retail experiences: Places where businesses, brands and people want to connect with each other.

More reasons to visit

In 2023, our strategy saw customer visitations at our 42 Westfield destinations across Australia and New Zealand increase to 512 million, up 32 million or 6.2% on 2022.

To put that into perspective, our Westfield destinations are welcoming approximately 10 million customer visits each week. That’s more than some of the biggest tourist attractions in the world.

A key driver of these customer visits is our unique activation program, which last year included our strategic partnerships with The Walt Disney Company, to celebrate its 100-year anniversary milestone as well as with Netball Australia and leading global entertainment company, Live Nation.

Across the year we hosted more than 16,100 events and activations, from Disney store pop-ups and LEGO castle installations to Live Nation appearances by Jessica Mauboy, Amy Shark and other local artists. We also conducted several local community engagement initiatives such as charity donation appeals, youth programs and our own Westfield Local Heroes events.

Our Westfield destinations became a source of free, live entertainment, with something always on and happening. The response from our customers was extraordinary, with many taking the time to tell us how much they valued these experiences. We want to continue building on this and have more exciting plans to come in 2024.

Fostering community connection

As a community destination, we are continuing to deepen our understanding of the challenges and opportunities our communities face and the role we play to foster and promote social wellbeing.

Our community grants and recognition program, Westfield Local Heroes, is now in its seventh year and has contributed $7.4 million to 740 community organisations.

We are pleased that the program is resonating. This is testament to the dedication of our team to continue to embed the program into our local communities and networks.

Demand for space

Our ability to attract more people to our Westfield destinations makes us a first-choice partner for businesses and brands.

In 2023, our business partners achieved $28.4 billion in sales, $1.7 billion or 6.4% more than in 2022, representing a record across our Westfield platform.

As a result, demand for space across our portfolio continues to be strong with occupancy increasing to 99.2 % at 31 December 2023, compared to 98.9% at 31 December 2022.

During the year, we completed 3,273 leasing deals which introduced 307 new brands to the portfolio.

Through increased competition for space in our Westfield destinations, we’re seeing a rise in ‘Experiential consumption’. Experience-based retail now accounts for 45% of stores across our Westfield portfolio.

A few great examples include the introduction of Hijinx Hotel Challenge Rooms at Westfield Chermside, axe-throwing at Westfield Knox, and Peloton at Westfield Bondi Junction.

Many existing business partners also introduced new services to enhance their instore experiences. RebelSport relocated its store at Westfield Chatswood to introduce a new retail concept complete with an augmented reality soccer pitch and basketball court.

Westfield Chermside

Pursuing growth

Our Westfield destinations, strategic land holdings and our unique brand provide significant long-term growth opportunities for our business.

We’re continuing our focus on strategic customer initiatives including our Westfield membership program. We now have more than 3.8 million members, an increase of 640,000 on 2022.

We believe this initiative will provide unique growth opportunities for our business, by creating a more direct relationship with customers so we can deepen our understanding of them. This helps us determine how we can better activate our destinations as well as how we evolve them over time.

A good example of this is our development program.

In Victoria, we successfully opened the final stages of the $355 million (SCG share: $178 million) investment in Westfield Knox late last year. This included the opening of two fashion precincts, a mini-majors precinct across Level 2 and a relocated and upgraded food court on Level 1. We also introduced a range of community spaces including a basketball court, swim school featuring a 25-metre heated pool and a nature-inspired outdoor kids play space. The development has been well received by the community, with visitation 14% higher than the comparable period in 2019. Further retail experiences and the new Knox Library will follow in 2024.

Progress continues on the expansion of Westfield Sydney on the corner of Market and Castlereagh streets in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. We will introduce 6,000m2 of luxury retail space over five levels, including the new Chanel boutique. Other brands to join the expanded Westfield Sydney include Moncler, Omega and Canada Goose.

In Brisbane, we commenced the $50 million redevelopment at Westfield Mt Gravatt, introducing Uniqlo, Harris Scarfe and a range of specialty stores to the previous department store space. These stores will continue to open throughout the year.

At Westfield Tea Tree Plaza in Adelaide, we commenced a $27 million (SCG share: $13.5 million) redevelopment which will introduce JB Hi-Fi, an expanded Timezone and additional dining.

Works on our $4 billion pipeline of future redevelopment opportunities also continues.

Our destinations are located on more than 670 hectares of land holdings, making Scentre Group a significant landowner in high density urban locations and growth regions across Australia and New Zealand. This provides us with potential, unique and long-term growth opportunities that are highly aligned to the macro thematics of both regions.

We are a responsible and sustainable business

Operating as a responsible sustainable business is core to our strategy and ambition to grow, so we can continue to create long-term value for our stakeholders.

Progress continues on our pathway to net zero by 2030 (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) with the recent completion of rooftop solar installations at Westfield Fountain Gate, Westfield Knox, Westfield Hornsby and Westfield Tuggerah. Together these installations more than double the Group’s solar generation capacity from 5.9MW to 12.2MW.

We have entered into a long-term energy agreement in NSW and Victoria, which together with our existing agreements in Queensland and New Zealand will assist us in achieving net zero by 2030.

Continuing momentum

As a business, we’re feeling energised by seeing our strategy in action and excited about all that’s to come.

We’re seeing more customers visit our destinations and our business partner sales have also continued to grow in the early part of 2024.

We’re confident we have the best team of people on the ground in our Westfield destinations and in our support offices to help create the places more people choose to come to, more often and for longer.

We’re looking forward to sharing more exciting updates with our customers, business partners and communities in the months ahead.