Unibail-Rodamco, Europe’s leading commercial property company, is introducing a brand new strategy that places restaurants and gastronomy at the heart of its shopping experience: ‘The Dining Experience’.
Unibail-Rodamco is reinventing its shopping centre strategy in the aim of offering customers a unique and exceptional experience. Both Confluence, which opened last April in Lyon, and So Ouest which opened this October in Levallois serve as good examples of this evolution.
Unique concepts and brands, exclusive services, leisure areas, children areas, cinemas and restaurants, have been unveiled to meet customer needs.
In March 2012, Unibail-Rodamco unveiled the “4-star label”. Nine of Unibail-Rodamco’s shopping centres across Europe1 have already achieved this high standard for their quality and service.
In December 2012, Unibail-Rodamco is presenting its new vision for dining: ‘The Dining Experience’. Its objective is to respond to customers’ needs and desires by offering an interactive and friendly gastronomic experience. The ‘Dining Experience’ revolves around three main principles:
1. Dedicated, renovated and larger spaces
2. A wider and improved choice of restaurants
3. A friendly and interactive atmosphere
Dedicated, renovated and larger spaces
To provide an innovative and quality dining space, Unibail-Rodamco is dedicating between 10 and 15 per cent of each centre’s space exclusively to gastronomy – a space named ‘The Dining Plaza’. This extraordinary space is tailored to offer a warm and welcoming atmosphere as well as providing an unforgettable experience to visitors. Using specialized architects with extensive experience in developing gastronomic spaces, each restaurant’s layout and selection of fittings have been carefully selected to offer a theatrical and exclusive environment.
A wider and improved restaurant offer
At the Dining Plaza, the customer can choose from a wide variety of restaurants: key brands with new concepts, exclusive and differentiating international brands and a selection of local and regional restaurants.
To accommodate all consumer needs, regardless of the time of day, the restaurants will provide a choice of five themes:
– Service to table restaurants: the best food and beverage from the five continents (Wagamama, VaPiano, Chipotle etc.)
– Fast meal: for a choice of fast food or take away (Paul, Brioche Dorée, Prêt à Manger, MacDonald’s etc.)
– Coffee and Tea breaks: at any time of the day (Starbuck’s, Segafredo, Costa Coffee etc.)
– Sweet and treat moments: for an enjoyable time alone or with family and friends (Häagen Dazs, Joe & the Juice etc.)
– Gourmet food products: for a real treat (Jeff de Bruges, Lavinia etc.)
Friendly and interactive areas
Dining and enjoying a good meal is a social event that can be shared with a loved one, with friends, with family or savoured on your own. Unibail-Rodamco is creating a friendly dining destination, providing original events and entertainment to its visitors: kitchen classes with famous chefs, wine and cheese tasting and sushi or cocktails workshops are just some examples of the wide range of events offered by ‘The Dining Experience’.
Unibail-Rodamco is further enhancing the attractiveness of its centres by offering complete visibility to its customers on its offer and activities through innovative digital tools such as smartphone applications, social media and interactive directories.
Revealed in July 2012 at La Maquinista in Barcelona, ‘The Dining Experience’ is now proving to be a success, with footfall increasing by 9 per cent between August to November 2011 and August to November 2012, with peak footfall increases of 18 per cent in the evenings and 23 per cent on Sundays.
‘The Dining Experience’ will be rolled out in a further 25 of Unibail-Rodamco’s shopping centres by 2015. Amongst these centres is Glories in Barcelona for March 2013, Galeria Mokotow in Warsaw for May 2013, and Aéroville, located in Roissy (France), a new shopping centre which will open in October 2013.
Fonte: CS della Società