JD Sports, streetwear retailer Culture Kings NZ, fashion label Flo and Frankie and hands-on workshop Build-A-Bear have been named some of the most popular outlets at New Zealand’s three biggest malls.

Listed landlord Kiwi Property Group today declared $1.7 billion of mall sales last year, setting a record and nearly 26 per cent up on pre-Covid sales in 2019.

The company also named specific stores where sales rose strongly and those outlets in Auckland and Hamilton were highlighted.

Linda Trainer, Kiwi Property asset management GM, said total store sales set records.

 “There were around 25 million customer visits to Sylvia Park, LynnMall and Te Awa at The Base in 2022, with customers spending more than $200 million at our centres in December alone.

“This strong result further supports our strategy of investing in, and intensifying, our mixed-used assets, which include some of New Zealand’s best shopping destinations,” Trainer said.

“Despite the challenging economic climate, Kiwi Property’s flagship centres such as Sylvia Park, with its diverse mix of first-to-New Zealand stores and favourite local retailers, coupled with a growing number of office and medical tenants, will help the business remain resilient through a potential future downturn, and position it for growth in the period that follows.”

The Reserve Bank has signalled it wants consumers to spend less, raising the official cash rate to try to reduce inflation.

But landlords like Kiwi are celebrating our pre-Christmas spending spree in particular, its shops tenanted by retailers who are selling more and more.

Kiwi said today a big factor in last year’s sales record was the opening of a 20,000sq m expansion at Sylvia Park three years ago.

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That brought 57 new stores above the existing mall.

The mini-majors category delivered an especially pleasing sales uplift, Kiwi said.

“Stores such as JD Sports and Culture Kings NZ performed strongly and the trend we’ve previously mentioned about retailers creating bigger flagship stores at Sylvia Park also supported growth in this category,” the company said.

“We’ve worked hard to continuously enhance our retail mix, opening a range of exclusive and first-to-New Zealand stores and attracting retailers that cater to changing consumer tastes, such as the rise in demand for the latest trainers, urban and athleisure wear.

“These efforts have helped increase the number of people to our centres, which has contributed to the growth in sales,” a spokesperson said.

Sylvia Park remains, for example, the only New Zealand base for the clothing chain Zara.

That mall has about 5000 car parks and Kiwi is now building apartments there as well as new offices.

Sales in December were up around 5 per cent across Kiwi’s mixed-use portfolio, compared to December 2021.

A strong performance across the portfolio drove that, as did the addition of several exciting new retailers including Flo and Frankie and Build-A-Bear.

Flo and Frankie is a women’s fashion and homewares boutique. Build-A-Bear allows people to make their own soft toys and custom teddy bears.

Kiwi’s December sales were up more than 20 per cent compared to pre-Covid 2019 levels, with a significant factor being the opening of the level 1 expansion at Sylvia Park, a spokesperson said.

New Zealand’s biggest mall owner is ASX-listed Scentre Group which owns 51 per cent of Westfield centres at Albany, Newmarket, St Lukes, Manukau and Riccarton.

A Singaporean government property investment fund owns the other 49 per cent.

In 2021, annual sales at Westfield malls were A$23.4b (NZ$25.37b).