Comment: How Derbion is taking a unique approach to growing Derby’s leisure offering
By Beth McDonald, managing director at Derbion
A strong leisure offering has long been a cornerstone of any successful retail destination, but in recent years it has gained even more importance.
The rise of e-commerce and the closure of high street staples like Debenhams, Topshop, and BHS, resulted in significant void space across many shopping centres and leisure has played a key role in filling those voids.
This combined with the rise of competitive socialisation following the Covid lockdown has meant leisure is now a major footfall driver helping to encourage people of all ages into city and town centres.
Across the UK we have seen bowling alleys, darts, crazy golf, and even go-karting move into shopping centres to fill former department store space, but at Derbion we’ve always wanted to stand out from the crowd and try something different.
This has always been reflected in our extensive leisure offering which alongside a 12-screen Showcase Cinema de Lux, Hollywood Bowl, and Paradise Island Adventure Golf, we are also one of only a few shopping centres to be home to a theatre.
Derby Theatre, owned by the University of Derby, is the first ever learning theatre which is recognised internationally for its unique opportunities that allow students to learn their craft by working alongside both academics and professionals on real shows and events. This alongside, its year round events calendar, play a crucial in attracting visitors of all ages to Derbion.
These leisure operators are complemented by The Food Terrace and dine in restaurants which offers a diverse array of F&B operators ranging from restaurant chains including Nandos, Wagamama, and Pizza Express, to casual dining favourites like Wingstop, Tortilla, Five Guys, as well as grab and go brands German Doner Kebab, Popeyes, and Greggs.
The food court at Derbion
This mix of leisure and F&B operators, alongside our retail mix ensures we have a destination which offers a full family-day out within a contemporary and safe environment.
Eager not to rest on our laurels, we are always exploring new ways to keep our leisure offering fresh and exciting to entice new and existing customers back to Derbion.
Being at the forefront of innovative new ideas is important to us so we were delighted to announce last year that we had secured agreements with Social Sports Society and Flo Skatepark to convert our former Eagle Market space into a community sports destination.
Padel has become one of the UK’s fastest-growing sports in recent years, thanks to its fun and easy-to-learn rules, its highly sociable nature and its accessibility to mixed ages and abilities.
Currently padel courts have mainly been situated in public parks or one-off courts in urban areas, but Social Sports Society has brought multiple courts to Derby city centre.
We have seen temporary pop-up padel courts be installed outside retail destinations in recent years, but this is one of the first real permanent indoor offerings. In the few months since its opening Social Sports Society is drawing in a large cross-section of visitors to Derbion ranging from families to those working in the city centre.
Meanwhile, our partnership with Flo Skatepark has allowed us to provide a world-class skateboarding centre for the Midlands. A charity which is supported by funding from Sport England, Flo Skatepark has become a base for Team GB’s skateboarding team attracting professional skaters from across the UK.
Flo Skatepark
Flo Skatepark also hosts regular events throughout the year, offering lessons for people of all ages and abilities to encourage Derby residents to get active, get involved, and get creative by trying out a new sport.
As well as attracting new visitors to Derbion, the arrivals of Social Sports Society and Flo Skatepark has allowed us to transform a previously vacant area of the centre into a new lively space. It is already bringing in greater footfall and dwell time to this part of the centre which is having a real positive impact on retailers located nearby who are taking advantage of the growing passing trade.
As well as welcoming innovative new leisure operators, it is important for retail destinations to partner with nearby leisure attractions. At Derbion we have partnered with Vaillant Live, to become the official car parking provider for Derby city centre’s new 3,500-capacity event venue.
Hosting over 200 cultural and commercial events each year, Vaillant Live is attracting around thousands of additional visitors to the city centre annually, and these event-goers are already having a positive impact on our F&B and retail operators.
As leisure’s role within creating a successful retail destination continues to gain greater importance, at Derbion we want to make sure we are ahead of the curve when it comes to welcoming exciting operators and forming partnerships with major attractions.
Through this we are creating a new Derbion Day Out culture which places us as the destination of choice for the East Midlands and beyond.