Vervolg
You would be hard pressed to find a chief executive who has helped shape and define the URW approach more than Mr. Tritant. In 2002 he became the Managing Director of the offices division, becoming a member of the executive committee, in 2007 on the back of the merger with Rodamco he has been appointed Managing Director of the French business by former CEO Guillaume Poitrinal.
This diverse background has served him well as the company also looks to establish itself as a leader in the urbanization and regeneration of its assets – with an eye to becoming the preferred partner to cities on their environmental transition. He shares “URW has a critical opportunity ahead of itself, where we look at the impact we can have with our assets, how we unlock value in our portfolio through mixed-use development and how we work with communities to lead sustainable change.”
The company to some degree is already there: it recently announced plans for its Lightwell office regeneration project in Paris, which has a host of sustainable bonafides; in 2021 it opened its Westfield Mall of the Netherlands, a comprehensive redevelopment of an existing shopping centre that welcomed over 13 million visits in its first year of operation; and is looking towards it 2024 opening of Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier – a former waterfront industrial site that will become the centre of a bustling new district in the German city.
Seeing and seeking
Global trends
Reflecting on his time leading the newly merged Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield business in the USA in the two years and a half before he became global CEO, Jean-Marie explains that “this was a very important formative experience for me for two reasons. Firstly, it provided me with an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and experience something new. Secondly, I became the only person in the business with a clear understanding of our operations in the USA and Europe.”
That insight combined with his lengthy career has provided Jean-Marie with a tremendous capacity to manage the impact that global consumer and economic trends are having on the real estate industry. He believes that physical retail is in a stronger position than it has been for some time, saying that “even before Covid there was a question around physical retail. Everyone thought that everything would be done online eventually, yet Covid has actually proved that this will not be the case. The store has re-emerged as vital to retailers’ profitability – and their recovery.”
Mr. Tritant also believes that his business is in robust shape when it comes to the inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. “We have yet to see the impact of inflation on the volume of consumption in our locations. Rather than a stabilisation, we are continuing to see sales rise back towards the level they were in 2019.”
Jean-Marie explains that this is partly due to the company’s customer profile. He says that “we are obviously helped by our strategy to focus on strong urban locations, which are nearly always in areas where the average income is higher. This isn’t the case everywhere, but it does provide us with some degree of protection”.
With the challenges ahead, Jean-Marie and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s focus on combining solid business fundamentals, the right assets in the right locations and an innovative and customer-led approach ensure that they are meeting the future head-on. He concludes “we don’t have all the answers today, which is the exciting part, but we have the right team, right assets and right strategy to succeed.”