The designer outlets Wolfsburg once again post record attendance and sales

This story provide by Michael Ernst – Senior Marketing Manager Germany/Deputy Center Manager designer outlets Wolfsburg 

The designer outlets Wolfsburg look back on a successful fiscal year 2012 and register a growth of 13% in attendance, welcoming a record 1.7 million visitors. The turnover figures also once again reached a new record high with an increase of 17% compared to the year before.

“The past year has considerably exceeded our expectations and we are more than happy with the results. And now we will have to build on this success. A special focus in 2013 will be on the second construction phase, which we are very much looking forward to,” says Stephan Schäfer, Managing Director of the operating company OCI.

The planned expansion of the outlet centre will be financed through a new investor, the

real estate fund manager “Europa Capital“, which has acquired a part of the designer outlets Wolfsburg in 2012 and belongs to the Rockefeller Group (RGI).

In 2012, the designer outlets Wolfsburg celebrated three exclusive new openings, thereby successfully expanding the brand portfolio and premium segment of the centre. In March 2012, the world’s leading chocolate manufacturer “Lindt” opened its outlet shop in Wolfburg, followed by the label renowned for high-quality shirts and blouses, “van Laack”, which opened a shop at the outlet in April. In October, the designer outlets Wolfsburg welcomed the world’s first outlet shop of the Swiss outdoor and mountaineering label “Mammut”, thereby making a new range of products from the “outdoor” sector available to the centre’s customers.

Apart from the increase in sales and attendance, a positive development can also be recorded in positioning the city of Wolfsburg as an attractive and supraregional travel destination: by now, 45% of the visitors come from a catchment area that is further away than 50 kilometres.

This increase in customers was also due to many diverse offers and successful collaborations, such as the “Fashion Train” in cooperation with the Deutsche Bahn, presenting an exclusive fashion show to a selected audience in a regional express train from Hannover to Wolfsburg.

„We continue to see a permanent increase of the supraregional attraction of the centre. The designer outlets and Wolfsburg are therefore an important part of the shopping and recreation offerings in Northern Germany,” says Michael Ernst, Assistant Centre Manager.