Westfield finds bright spots in food and technology spending

THE company that owns Westfield shopping centres in Australia says rising sales as higher spending on food and technology offset weak turnover at department stores.

Scentre says its total moving average turnover — a key measurement of revenue — rose 1.6 per cent in the nine months to September, compared with a year earlier.

But it came as like-for-like sales, which strips out the impact of shops opening and closing, tumbled 6.7 per cent.

Sales at discount department stores slipped 0.6 per cent in the same period.

In its third-quarter trading update yesterday, Scentre confirmed its forecast for growth in funds from operations (a measure of cash flow) of about 4.25 per cent for the full year.

It also affirmed its forecast distribution of 21.73c for each of its securities.

The figures come amid a growing focus on the health of the retail sector, and follow Myer’s move last week to downgrade key sales targets and warn of more store closures.

Many shopping centre landlords have been overhauling their centres to focus on eateries and experiences that can’t be bought online ahead of Amazon’s arrival.

Scentre reported like-forlike sales growth of 1.3 per cent in food dining; food retail sales rose 3.8 per cent.

Fashion retail dropped 0.2 per cent, and technology and appliances rose 6.5 per cent.

The landlord’s properties were on average more than 99.5 per cent leased.

Scentre said all projects under development — which had a total cost of $1.1 billion, of which Scentre’s share was $810 million — were “progressing well”.