Patisserie Valerie upsizes and Yankee Candle join line up at centre:mk
Hermes Investment Management, the £33.0 billion manager, and AustralianSuper, joint owners of centre:mk, have announced that the luxury handmade cakes café, Patisserie Valerie, has upsized at centre:mk while Yankee candle, the scented candle retailer, has also launched a new store on Silbury Arcade.
Patisserie Valerie is now located at 9-11 Deer Walk, next to the £7 million customer experience services area, serving an extensive menu of luxury handmade cakes and light continental meals along with teas and coffees. Measuring 2,650 sq ft, the café was designed by an in-house team to reflect the brand’s continental roots and will be able to seat up to 60 customers.
Joining the new Patisserie Valerie, is Yankee Candle, who launched a 3,400 sq ft store this month at 94 Silbury Arcade, opposite Dr Martens. The American premium candle brand combines high-quality scents with affordability, sustainability and quality, in addition to home fragrances, accessories and gifts.
Ed Sellick, on behalf of centre:mk joint owners, Hermes Investment Management and AustralianSuper, commented: “Patisserie Valerie enjoys huge popularity among centre:mk visitors and we have been looking forward to them opening a larger café to accommodate high demand and enrich the customer experience. In addition, Yankee Candle is a gift industry leader, and further strengthens our premium retail offering, set to be enhanced even further over the next 12 months.”
Paul May, CEO at Patisserie Holdings, added: “We are excited to continue our growth within centre:mk, the new site will mean we can welcome more customers; both our loyal regulars and some new faces.”
This news follows the announcement earlier this month that an upsized River Island has opened at centre:mk. Plans for a new 75,000 sq ft Primark store, which is the single largest letting at centre:mk for 25 years, were also revealed in the autumn.
centre:mk has undergone extensive investment by its joint owners AustralianSuper and Hermes Investment Management, with £60 million of enhancements over the last two years, including the £10 million refurbishment of Sunset Walk, and the award-winning Deer Walk customer experience services that were unveiled to the public last summer.
MMX Retail and CBRE acted for centre:mk. Time Retail Partners and Savills represented Patisserie Valerie and Yankee Candle respectively.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
· Nick Thornton at Aver on 07808940208, or via nickthornton@aver.uk.com
· Amy Cassidy at Aver on 07786025417, or via amycassidy@aver.uk.com
Notes to Editors:
Hermes Investment Management
We are an asset manager with a difference. We believe that, while our primary purpose is helping beneficiaries retire better by providing world class active investment management and stewardship services, our role goes further. We believe we have a duty to deliver holistic returns – outcomes for our clients that go far beyond the financial and consider the impact our decisions have on society, the environment and the wider world.
Our goal is to help people invest better, retire better and create a better society for all.
We offer clients access to a broad range of specialist, high conviction investment teams with £33.0 billion* assets under management. In Hermes EOS, we have one of the industry’s leading engagement resource, advising on £336.1 billion* of assets.
Hermes' investment solutions include:
· Private markets – Infrastructure, private debt, private equity and real estate
· High active share equities - Asia, global emerging markets, Europe, US, global, and small and mid cap
· Credit - Absolute return, global high yield, multi strategy and global investment grade
· Multi asset - Multi asset inflation
· Stewardship – Active engagement, intelligent voting, sustainable development and advocacy
* Please note the total AUM figure includes £5.8bn of assets managed or under an advisory agreement by Hermes GPE LLP (“HGPE”), a joint venture between Hermes Fund Managers Limited ("HFM") and GPE Partner Limited. HGPE is an independent entity and not part of the Hermes group. £125.8m of total group AUM figure represents HFM mandates under advice. Source: Hermes as at 31 December 2017 with the exception of one portfolio totalling £9.9m valued as at 30 September 2017, and one portfolio totalling £2.7m valued as at 30 June 2017.
About AustralianSuper
AustralianSuper manages more than AUD$130 billion of members’ assets on behalf of more than two million members from across 270,000 businesses. One in 10 working Australians is a member of AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest industry super fund.
About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (in terms of 2014 revenue). The Company has more than 52,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 370 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE offers strategic advice and execution for property sales and leasing; corporate services; property, facilities and project management; mortgage banking; appraisal and valuation; development services; investment management; and research and consulting. Please visit our website