Retail boss: Parts of town becoming ‘a wasteland’

Retail boss: Parts of town becoming ‘a wasteland’

In an interview in today’s JEP, Tony O’Neill, chief executive of SandpiperCI, said that the state of retail is so bleak he would not bring a new store to the town centre.

He spoke out just months after the JEP reported that the number of empty units in town was believed to have hit a ten-year high.

And today another store, Drivers in West’s Centre, which has traded for 25 years, has announced it is closing due to sustained difficult trading conditions.

Meanwhile, three members of the Jersey Retail Association have warned that the industry is currently facing near-record-breaking shop vacancy levels. They have also called for more cruise ships to be brought to the Island but have labelled claims that Jersey’s high street is dying as unfounded.

Today Mr O’Neill, whose business runs franchises including M&S, Iceland, Morrisons and George, called for the States to do whatever they can to bring life to the struggling industry.

He has called for:

*The 20 per cent retail tax to be scrapped.

*Parking to be made free in town.

*The removal of the GST de minimus.

Mr O’Neill, who has revealed a long-term plan to make Liberty Wharf similar to London’s Covent Garden with a stage for performances, said he had never seen so many empty shops as there are currently and he estimated that there is close to 100,000 square feet of retail space now vacant.

‘On the day that they passed the 20 per cent retail tax, Mothercare pulled out and Thomas Cook announced they were pulling out,’ he said. ‘That’s Mothercare, £330,000-a-year for that unit, still empty. I hear it may go, but not for that rent. And you’ve got [the former] Next at the top end [of King Street]. You’ve got Halkett Street that looks like a wasteland because you’ve got Jaeger and Austin Reed gone.

‘I think the town centre is a real issue and all the time you have people sitting in their armchairs, ordering products online and you then charge them to come into town to park. Where’s the incentive for the Island to keep its vibrancy and its town centre?’

He added: ‘If we end up in the extreme with all these warehouses on the south coast of Ireland shipping stuff in, I might be okay with the odd coffee shop in town but there won’t be much else left because the economies of operating here, as is well documented, are expensive.

‘I remember talking to Terry [former Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur] before Ian Gorst about this. They all know it’s an issue but they can’t get their heads around it. They can’t even get their heads around doing away with the GST de minimis and at least creating a level playing field because it’s not a vote winner – “by the way voters, we’ve just put your prices up by 5 per cent”.

‘I don’t think any of these politicians have got the courage to deal with that. They need to get hold of the town centre, to my mind they need to re-zone, they need to think about more pedestrianisation and parking so that you’re not disincentivising consumers in the islands to come into the town to shop.’

Mr O’Neill says he doesn’t want government to help, he just wants them to: ‘Facilitate an arena where we can come in and trade and trade sensibly’.

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –