One of the largest owners of SA shopping centres, Resilient Reit, asserted at a Competition Commission inquiry yesterday that exclusivity clauses served no purpose for landlords or the general economy and should be outlawed in SA. A Business Day report says the company’s Johann Kriek made this submission when he answered questions on how leases varied between anchor tenants and line stores as well as how shopping centres supported retailers by bringing foot traffic to towns.

Kriek said exclusivity clauses inhibited retail trade in SA. ‘An exclusive trade arrangement would be an extremely inhibiting factor for all competing retailers. We must not support exclusive trade arrangements. The market must operate in the most natural manner possible, based on supply and demand,’ he said. Kriek said Resilient would prefer to have various national retailers in the same mall competing with one another.

By having large retailers, more shoppers would be attracted to the centre and this would make it more viable for small stores to operate in a mall. Kriek said shopping malls did not necessarily negatively affect the operations of small formal and informal traders near them.

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