Sales targets falter after slow trading days at Sylvia Park

The traffic jams which dogged Sylvia Park shopping centre's opening week appear to be a memory. Picture / Paul Estcourt.

Some retailers at the country's largest shopping centre are failing to meet sales targets.

Sylvia Park opened to a blaze of publicity in May, when shoppers flooding into the mall brought traffic in Mt Wellington to a standstill.

But since then, trade appears to have slowed.

Helen Dawson, of retail consultant Ideaworks, said she knew of Sylvia Park tenants running below targets and disappointed by foot traffic.

"There has been a surprise about the foot traffic, particularly early in the week. People are rethinking targets," she said.

Trade publication Food Industry Week reported this month that it had surveyed a range of supermarkets and on a Saturday afternoon found only one customer in the mall's Foodtown store.

But Angus McNaughton of Kiwi Income Property Trust, which owns Sylvia Park, said sales figures were broadly as expected. He said the development was still rolling out with the recent fashion retailers contributing to a changing demographic.

Foodstuffs New Zealand chief executive Tony Carter said the Pak 'n Save operation at Sylvia Park was meeting expectations.

The retail sector will be watching Sylvia Park closely as its geographic location in the south-east of Auckland will likely take customers from other complexes at a time when retail sales are slowing anyway.

Briscoe Group chief Rod Duke said he looked at Sylvia Park but the tenancies were too expensive compared with those at other malls.

Dawson said other retail locations were also facing falls.