Westfield starts off conquest of Europe in Paris

The launch of Westfield on the European continent was celebrated in Paris. The shopping centre operator will have ten Unibail-Rodamco shopping centres under their responsibility, ranging from France to Sweden.

Forum des Halles becomes Westfield

At Les Quatre Temps shopping centre in Paris, Westfield’s advance onto the European mainland has been launched with great celebration: John Legend gave a concert there for thousands of customers at the shopping centre. The singer will repeat that nine more times this month, as ten European shopping centres are being transformed into Westfield shopping centres.

Through the acquisition of the Australian shopping centre operator by real estate group Unibail-Rodamco in 2018, the shopping centres in the merged group will continue to exist under the Westfield brand. This week, it was the turn of the two shopping centres in Paris: after Les Quatre Temps, Forum des Halles reopened the following day under the new brand name. Other shopping centres in France, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic will follow.

New services

The change in name, also includes new activities and services. Westfield has installed lockers, click&collect services, and cloakrooms throughout the premises. In addition, gift vouchers can now be used in all Westfield shopping centres within a country, in addition to the group launching its own loyalty programme. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has promised that further innovations will follow in the course of this and next year.

Last year, Unibail-Rodamco bought Westfield Corporation, a spin-off from the larger Westfield group. This created the merger group Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which includes 92 shopping centres in Europe and the United States. At the time of the takeover, it was agreed that all the shopping centres of the group would henceforth be called Westfield. The start of this process has now been marked with the conversion of the first ten ‘flagships’.