Q&A with Andrew Shepherd, Director at 'AS Retail'
Q&A with Andrew Shepherd
Name: Andrew Shepherd
Title: Founder & Director
Company: AS Retail
Who are AS Retail?
We have just celebrated our 10th birthday and comprise an active team of three.
We provide specialist advice within the retail and leisure sector to occupiers seeking new sites or disposing of surplus stores, and to landlords, on their high street and shopping centre portfolios UK wide focussing on agency and lease advisory.
Who do AS Retail currently act for?
At the moment we are primarily known for our occupier work where we’re advising on a number on exciting roll out programmes.
We acquired 21 new stores with one relocation for Cards Direct in 2024, taking the estate up to around 80 units. I leased them their pilot store back in 2012 and have advised them on all store acquisitions since; four new stores have opened thus far in 2025 with the nationwide expansion expected to continue into 2026.
We are also very busy working with Jetts Fitness, one of the leading health and fitness brands globally. Originating from Australia we have worked with the brand and their various business owners over the past seven years in steadily rolling out fantastic new clubs. Jetts now have 20 in the England including numerous sites in London such as Wandsworth, Clapham, Hammersmith and the recently opened club in Burnt Oak, but also regionally with Colchester, Farnham, Skipton, Leeds (x2) all open and Basingstoke in build out. We have a number of other sites at various stages of negotiation but an appetite for many more all across the country with a big focus on London & South East England but also the M4 corridor with Bristol and South Wales particular areas of interest.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) have also been keeping us busy where we are seeking retail warehouses in Scotland and Norther Ireland for their ‘Superstore’ requirements. Two stores have opened recently in Glasgow and one is in build out in Belfast. We also advise them on their ‘core’ store relocations across England, Wales and Scotland.
Recently we are thrilled to have been appointed by Sky to assist in the acquisition of eight high street stores in specific locations such as York, Guildford and Bath.
One of our other key occupational clients is Danish furniture and lifestyle brand BoConcept. We have worked with the brand for a number of years securing stores recently for them in York, St Albans, Cheltenham and Exeter as well as optimising their Tottenham Court Road flagship leases and securing new warehouses for them with the new London DC currently being fitted out. We are quite happy to assist our retailer clients with their non-retail properties where our expertise allows.
On the landlord side, we advise on a number of major clients such as Railpen, Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), Patrizia, Capreon, CBRE, Columbia Threadneedle, Surrey Heath Borough Council & Praxis as well as a number of smaller and private clients. These tend to be shopping centre instructions with us leasing Old George Mall in Salisbury, Tunsgate Quarter in Guildford, The Square in Camberley, Lower Precinct in Coventry and new developments such as Magna Square in Egham.
Recent acquisitions or acquisitions in the pipeline?
Lots…. For a small team of three we certainly punch above our weight in terms of deals being done.
We have eight new stores in legals for Cards Direct; all are planned to open between now and October with scope for a couple more to slot in this year and more required for 2026.
We hope sign a further five or six Jetts clubs over the next few months as that roll out accelerates and for CRUK we have a further Superstore unit in Scotland in legals; we’ve also just concluded a relocation for them in the Scottish seaside town of Helensburgh with active relocation requirements for them in Hayes and Portswood.
Our long-time clients Traid, who have 12 really cool stores in London, are now actively searching for another couple of units across London to add to the estate – areas such as Walworth Road, Hackney, Cystal Palace, Hoxton/Shoreditch, West End and Kings Road can all be considered.
Extra information:
Despite the challenges in the leasing market we’re really proud of some of the leasing transactions we’ve been involved with recently.
We successfully leased a 43,000 sq ft former TJ Hughes Department Store at Lower Precinct in Coventry to Flip Out and Putt Social. We’ve actually had a really good run of deals at Lower Precinct in the last few years with a bunch of relocations out the way of City Centre South but also new entrants into the City. We’ve done deals with Sostrene Grene, Fragrance Shop, Cards Direct and Rymans to name a few.
There is only one small unit left at The Tunsgate Quarter in Guildford now having completed deals with Arlo & Jacob, Nordic Style and Jacks of London plus our joint agents landing Sixes Social Cricket and Townhouse Nails recently. This is a stunning location with a host of up market lifestyle brands such as The White Company, Bobbi Brown, OKA and Loaf. Footfall here is not at the same levels as High Street or The Friary but the shoppers that come, spend.
We also have a number of deals progressing at The Square Shopping Centre in Camberley and at Old George Mall in Salisbury; keep an eye on our socials when we can release more details and do get in touch for availability in this evolving and improving locations.
Additional questions:
What are the main challenges you face when acquiring new property?
Overall things seem to be getting more complex and convoluted with deals generally taking longer than ever - we as agents need to demonstrate determination, tenacity, reliance, know-how and patience in order to see the process through from site identification to lease completion. We love deal completions but it’s more of a relief when that email drops in rather than a cause for celebration at the moment.
The time it is taking to get deals done is a major problem; as deals drag and time elapses there is more opportunity for the parties, but mainly occupiers, to assess and reassess the deal terms. Factors outside of their immediate control risk deals being renegotiated or worse aborting. The recent case in point was the increase in staffing costs emanating from the Spring budget; the impact of these changes have started to bite with significant increased costs at store level – at every store – which is putting more pressure on financial viability of stores be them new acquisitions, at renewals or where occupiers have break options. Occupiers can’t simply raise their prices to set off these increases and they can’t readily absorb them, so really the only way for occupiers to maintain status quo on store level contribution is by reducing the property costs; in most cases that manifests as a lower rental, leaving the landlords in a worse position which is unfortunate as these cost pressures are outside of Landlords control too.
Service charges have, in many cases, sky-rocketed too and seem set to continue rising. In part this is also owing to the higher costs of staffing but again increases here just add to a store property cost and again occupiers can’t simply soak these increases up; we’ve seen some cases where the increases each year are double digit in percentage terms and can be many thousands of pounds more each year – that’s a lot of extra store turnover needed if occupiers work on a multiple of say 5 times property cost (ie sales need to be 5x the property cost for their to be a positive contribution). Unfortunately sales volumes and overall turnover are not increasing at the same level in order to cover off these increases costs in fact in many cases sales are diminishing - so more pressure is put onto store performance which leads to occupiers demanding service charge caps or lower rental levels to set off higher service charges to protect their – often slender - bottom lines. We appreciate that none of this is good news for landlords either but without profitable stores there will be no rent being paid.
Radical steps have been taken by established brands to survive and to create financially sustainable estates with the recent Poundland and River Island restructurings almost certainly won’t be the last ones this year.
Notwithstanding all of this, there remains good demand for the right sites in good locations; for well-located and regularly configured units in robust towns it not uncommon to find competitive bidding situations which baffles many occupiers. The facts are that if it’s a good property then other occupiers will want it too and we have to work hard and find a competitive edge in order to secure those sites for our clients, particularly if we don’t wish to compete on pure rental.
Retail properties come in all different shapes and sizes - some compromise against what is optimum is inevitable in most cases but the level of that compromise is always subject to debate. Finding the combination of the right size and shape, location and cost base / deal terms makes being an acquisition agent a challenge, even when on the face of it there is quite a lot of stock available. People think it’s easy – it isn’t! We have to review a lot of opportunities in order to identify the best options and of course have to “know” your towns. I’m fortunate that I spend quite a bit of time on the road with clients checking out towns and shopping centres so am able to compare them nationally. With deals done in the last 12 months from Truro, to Belfast, to Glasgow, to Greater Manchester, Leeds & Humberside through the Midlands and back to London and the South Coast the town knowledge I have has to be one of the comprehensive in the market currently.
Favourite occupier and why?
A difficult question as there are so many great brands out there but I’m going to say Bill & Bert’s in Colchester. Bill & Bert’s is a family owned gift shop that frankly has something for everyone and every occasion. From an extensive range of Jelly Cat soft toys, to bath bombs, clothing, bags. Jewellery and games the range is extensive but it’s the personal touch of the owners and staff who will engage with every customer, help them out to find what they might need and really add quality of service into the equation. Bill Nettelfield is an exceptional retailer whom I’ve known for some 20 years and we wish him continued success with Bill & Bert’s.
What is your favourite building?
I’m not sure if it counts but can I say a football pitch.
When I’m not in the car on town trips, on the phone or at the laptop I find myself watching, playing or coaching football. I coach my Son’s Berkhamsted Raiders football team and have done for a few years now; we go into U12’s this year which is the first season of competitive football. I’m no Jurgan Klopp but we do ok with positive encouragement to the boys. I play myself one day a week with a bunch of ‘Old Fogies’ as we call ourselves but have increasingly engaged with our local non-league football team in Berkhamsted since the Pandemic which has seen us miss out on promotion one season, win the league by miles the next, then get relegated but win promotion via play-offs last season – we’re all set for what should be an exciting season in Step 3 (thee below the league). The beauty of non-league football is that it’s not all that expensive, you can stand right by the edge of the pitch with a beer sharing some banter with the players, there is no fan segregation and generally there are goals (and mistakes).
Contact details:
Email - andrew@as-retail.co.uk
Tel - 020 7287 2155
IG handle - @asretail
Twitter handle - @as_retail
