Question 1

What is in the European Outlet Industry Review?

Accepted Answer

The 2026 edition provides a guide to outlet performance trends across Europe.  The key themes include:
the position in 2025 in terms of turnover, sales densities and floor space provision by country
a review of key operators including market shares of brand turnover and floorspace
ten-year sales growth trends for the industry, by format, region and key country
reviews of brand expansion, location trends, national capacity for additional floorspace and the development pipeline
profiles for each of the seven leading outlet countries (hierarchy, sales densities, brand activity and sales growth) 
a section on the most important challenges and opportunities facing the sector 
projections of floorspace and turnover growth to 2028
classification and ranking of brands using Ken Gunn Consulting’s unique Total Brand Mass (TBM) and Average Brand Quality (ABQ) metrics
classification and ranking of outlet centres using Ken Gunn Consulting’s unique Total Brand Mass (TBM) and Average Brand Quality (ABQ) metrics

Question 2

Does the European Outlet Industry Report provide information on specific sites?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the report contains a ranking of every outlet centre in Europe which also includes the country, operating company, performance tier, brand mass, average brand quality, brand churn and details annual change.

Question 3

Who buys the European Outlet Industry Review?

Accepted Answer

The EOIR is purchased by investors, operators asset managers and real estate advisors across Europe.  In 2025, copies were sold to clients in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States

Question 4

How is the European Outlet Industry Report helpful?

Accepted Answer

EOIR provides a benchmark against which players in Europe can measure performance.  Given the commercial sensitivity of lease agreements and store turnover, trading performance is rarely exchanged allowing partial or misinformation to potentially cloud commercial decisions.  The report is an attempt to pull together published information from across the industry, filter out exaggeration and marketing 'spin' and provide a reliable guide to performance, challenges and emerging trends.

The European outlet industry is dominated by seven countries which account for 77% of total outlet assets and 77% of brand turnover.  It is quite easy for these seven markets to look inward and ignore evolving international trends and best practice and so the report aims to provide missing context.

As operational assets, the success of outlet centres is measured by sales growth, which is ultimately driven by improvements in brand lineup.  The European ranking is designed to show quantitative and qualitative improvements in the brand lineup at every centre using a consistent approach and therefore provide a reliable indicator of growth.

Question 5

What do you mean by performance hierarchy?

Accepted Answer

There is a clear hierarchy of sites which is distinguished by the quality of brand lineups, visitor mix  and the average sales density metric (sales per square metre).  There are five tiers in Europe, with Tier 1 eg Bicester Village (UK) producing more than €10,000/sqm and Tier 5 eg Outletui Fashion Centre (PT) producing less than €2,000/sqm.

The performance hierarchy is important as the success of outlet centres is driven by a unique turnover lease, whereby a landlord will receive a proportion of rent (sometimes known as 'top up') from a brand's turnover, if certain levels of turnover are exceeded.  There is also a base rent which gives the landlord a minimum guaranteed income but which can rise if a brands sales are strong, through a clause in the lease known as the 'ratchet'.

While this is complicated, the result is that landlords and their operators are much more engaged in trying to increase sales at outlet centre assets than managers of other types of property.  This brings them into alignment with brands and has resulted in a very strong partnership which drives turnover and income growth which is well ahead of other retail assets.

The performance hierarchy demonstrates which European outlet sites are most successful and determines the value of assets for brands and investors alike.

Question 6

How many outlet centres are there in Europe?

Accepted Answer

The 2026 edition of the European Outlet Industry Review lists 206 major outlet centres in twenty-nine countries.

In addition there are circa 40 sites which offer outlet style shopping which are excluded because they are concession based (like department stores) or too small to meet the minimum criteria of 5,000 sqm.  Examples include Denby Outlet Village (UK), Factory Outlet Airport (GR), Marques City (FR), Outletpark (CH) or Batley Mill (UK)

Question 7

How did the European ranking of outlet centres come about?

Accepted Answer

The annual European Outlet Industry Review was first prepared in response to the needs for outlet professionals to position the performance of their assets within the universe of international outlet centres to support their leasing, marketing and investment decisions.

Over twenty years this has led to the creation of national rankings, independent sales estimates, a definition of the European outlet hierarchy and quantification of the relationship between brand lineup, retail mix and turnover performance.

Originally, the ranking was produced to support consultancy projects.  However it became clear that the outlet industry lacked a reliable means for consistently measuring opportunities across assets , leading to concerns that brands and investors could potentially make poor decisions.  This lead to the inclusion of the ranking within the annual European Outlet Industry Review.

Question 8

How many editions of the European Outlet Industry Review have their been?

Accepted Answer

There have been three editions of EOIR in its current format.

However, predecessors of the report have been produced as client summaries and conference presentations since 2010, when data on brand locations and site turnover was first systematically collected.

Frequently asked questions