AS Module 1 10.3 : the Service Sector and Geographical Areas

AS Module 1 10.3 : The service sector and geographical areas From : www.merryhill.co.uk ; The Merry Hill retail development in 2000

Introduction A major retail development located on the site of the former Round Oak steelworks; heavy manufacturing industry decline and closure and the rise of the service sector shopping mall.

Merry Hill is a series of shopping malls, located in the heart of the Midlands. Unlike other shopping centres, with which it is often compared, it is located at the heart of a densely populated area, within a major industrial/residential conurbation, serving the shopping needs of the local population Merry Hill is a 125 acre site which has been developed in five phases, supporting mall and retail warehouse shopping with catering and leisure facilities.

• The site encompasses 1.5 million square feet gross lettable area • Merry Hill has over 220 stores • Merry Hill has 28 catering outlets with a total of 2355 seats • Major anchor tenants include Debenhams, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's, Asda, C&A, Boots, Argos and TK Maxx.

• Merry Hill attracts over 20 million visitors per year, an average of 385,000 per week. Almost 50% of these consumers come from the local community. • Merry Hill's busiest month is December. The busiest week was week commencing 29 December where in 1998 Merry Hill attracted over 500,000 visitors. Its busiest day is the first day of sales after Christmas. • The Merry Hill catchment area comprises of some 4.7 million people within a one hours drive time. • 46% of theses consumers come from the DY postcode area • Visitors spend more than 2 hours per visit. • Merry Hill employs in excess of 4000 staff • Merry Hill has 7,000 car parking spaces on site • Between the hours of 11am and 2pm Merry Hill has 98 buses per hour driving through its bus station

The History of Merry Hill The site on which Merry Hill and the Waterfront development were built was originally a steel works. In December 1982 the works fell under the control of the British Steel Corporation which was subsequently closed. The recession of the late 1970's and the early 1980's had a greater effect on the Brierley Hill area than on other local sides of industry. Unemployment was consistently above the national average during the period of 1974 and 1985. Following Dudley’s declaration that the area surrounding Merry Hill would be an enterprise zone, the Richardson Brothers were invited by Dudley Council to submit their ideas on regenerating the area. Their plans were approved on 3rd October 1984.

The redevelopment which began shortly afterwards and which took several years to complete, transformed the original site. Thousands of tonnes of earth were bulldozed and the foundations of the original steelworks were crushed and used for road and parking construction.

From 1987 through 1990 the Richardson's progressively sold their interests in the development to the Mountleigh Group who in turn sold out to the present owners, Chelsfield in September 1993.

Since the site was originally built the 125 acre site has been developed in five phases:

• Phase 1 retail warehousing opened 1985 (163,000 sq ft approx) • Phase 2 shopping mall opened 1985 (203,000 sq ft approx) • Phase 3 retail warehousing opened 1986 (214,000 sq ft approx) • Phase 4 shopping mall opened 1988 - extended in 1996 (137,000 sq ft approx) • Phase 5 shopping mall opened 1989 (818,000 sq ft approx)

The current site includes 1.5 million square feet of retail space and supports 220 retail outlets.