Amanda Austin. Centre Director Freshney Place

Today’s speaker was Amanda Austin, Centre Director of Freshney Place Shopping Centre.Amanda was born in Doncaster and before becoming the Centre Director had worked in bars,factories ,in accounts and, for seven years, in property in London.

Amanda is very passionate about her work in Freshney Place and informed us that there are three customers including the owners(pension funds)tenants and shoppers.There are over 40 people on the staff and there is  support from eg publicity and estates.

 Freshney Place has 100 retailers, covers 500,000 sq ft and is the largest centre in Lincolnshire  with  13 million visitors a year.Her aim is to provide a good service and they are an award winning team even beating Brentford Blue Water.There are some bad perceptions one being that they charge too much for a unit but it is the market rate.However, rent is a problem not only for us at Freshney Place, but  throughout the UK.

Today they are two elements to shopping including on line and visiting  the shop and they have to provide a good customer experience.

As a centre they support community involvement,support local  charities and hold charity events.

As regards the future. They are replacing the floor covering,installing electric charge points in the car parks and extending Primark from 10,000 to 47,000 sq ft.A cinema will be built,with restaurants on the site of the former bus station in about two years time.