UK retains position as most international market

The UK has retained its position at the top of the international market rankings.

According to a survey conducted by property agency CB Richard Ellis, the UK is still home to more international retailers than any other market.

As part of the study, How Global is the Business of Retail?, 280 retailers with international footprints were surveyed to establish which markets they had a presence in. Of these, 58 per cent had stores in the UK, compared with 48 per cent for Spain, the second-ranked market.

Behind this was France, which 46 per cent of the retailers said they were present in.

European countries have traditionally dominated the rankings of countries with international retailers present, but CBRE has said that this is coming under threat by rapid expansion in emerging markets such as China and Russia, which took sixth and seventh place respectively.

However, as the report does not take into account activity in 2009, it does not reflect the global downturn in the last quarter, which has stunted many retailers’ growth overseas.

CBRE head of cros- border EMEA retail Peter Gold said: “The average number of countries retailers are in has increased, but we expect this to be static in next year’s report. But there are still those brands that are not in debt and will continue with their expansion strategies.”

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