Mykola Yakymenko, acting Head of the Development Department, acting Operations Manager of Arricano, took part in the annual practical conference “Shopping Mall Operation: economy + efficiency. How to reduce operating costs without losing quality?” which was held on June, 19. The organizers of the conference, Malls Club Ukraine & Belarus, gathered together more than 60 participants - managers of shopping malls, operations managers, technical directors of shopping malls, representatives of service companies to exchange professional experience related to reduction of operational costs and increase of profitability of a shopping mall.
Mykola Yakymenko during the discussion panel where market players presented their cases related to the efficiency of shopping malls operation, noted that Arricano, being the leading developer of shopping malls in Ukraine, constantly works on the improvement of business processes, optimization of costs and other processes that provide competitive advantage on the market. “One of the competitive advantages is the reduction of OPEX for our tenant partners,” Mykola said. - With the aim at reduction of operating costs for the maintenance and operation of our shopping malls, we are working at decrease of energy costs. We modernize systems and equipment in our malls, analyze work of all systems and after that make changes in the planning of systems operation. While working on energy saving, Arricano company modernizes ventilation and air-conditioning systems on its facilities. In particular, in Rayon shopping mall supply and exhaust units were modernized, namely: a recuperation section was installed and as a result the cost of heating and cooling of air was reduced. We systematically look for the ways of improvement of energy-saving technologies. For example, now the company analyses the project of installation of solar panels on the roofs of our malls.”
In addition to cases, a number of relevant topics devoted to the effective management of a shopping mall was discussed during the conference - use of alternative energy sources in retail real estate, smart solutions for a shopping mall, automation of work processes; technologies and solutions increasing profitability of an enterprise; increase of efficiency of personnel, modernization and reconstruction of engineering systems of a shopping mall. The participants of the event visited the business center which was certified according to the “green” construction standard BREEAM International and where energy-saving technologies, environmentally friendly materials and modern engineering of BMS Schneider Electric Astarta were used.
Malls Club has been holding the conference devoted to technical maintenance of a shopping mall for the third consecutive year. “Last year we added to the program of the conference the tours to the technical areas of shopping malls selected for demonstration,” Inna Krolevetska, executive director of Malls Club says. – The participants liked this format and we decided to organize the tour this year too. The participants not only had an opportunity to listen to their colleagues' cases about increasing the profitability of a particular shopping mall, but also to see how this or that equipment works. Fortunately, the retail real estate market has rallied; the objects that meet international quality standards are declared for opening. Without any doubts, it was interesting to analyze their experience and visit their technical zones.”