Celebrating a Decade of Growth, Innovation and Partnerships – Sigma Retail Partners turns 10

Ten years ago, in January 2015, Sigma Retail Partners was founded by a team of highly experienced retail experts with unique asset management skills. Our mission was to source high quality, resilient retail assets, match them to our capital partners’ target financial returns and, subsequently, add value through rigorous and effective asset management.

Over the last decade, Sigma Retail Partners has grown from a small startup to becoming the leading retail asset management specialist platform here in Ireland, helping our capital partners optimise their investments and unlock new opportunities for growth. We are proud to have completed over 30 large scale acquisitions, disposals and debt refinancing solutions, totalling more than €1.5bn since launching our business.

The Sigma team has delivered over 1,000 significant asset management initiatives, including hundreds of lease re-gears, new lettings and ESG initiatives across the portfolio. Each milestone has been a testament to the trust our clients place in us, and the dedication of our fantastic team.

Today, as we celebrate our 10^th anniversary, we reflect on the incredible journey that has brought us to where we are now, and we look forward to the future with enthusiasm and optimism. When Sigma Retail Partners was launched, our goal was simple yet ambitious: to create strong, long-term partnerships with our capital partners, lenders, retailers and professional teams with the common objective being to further enhance every retail asset we manage.  From day one, we focused on three core principles: innovation, collaboration, and integrity. These values have shaped everything we do and continue to guide our approach to every project, every client and every partnership.

Shortly after Sigma was launched, Navan, Sligo and Bray Retail Parks were acquired followed by five shopping centres within The Harvest Portfolio. Soon after that, Naas, Drogheda, Gateway (Galway) & Waterford Retail Parks were acquired.

By Spring 2018, The Square Town Centre in Dublin was purchased followed by Parkway Retail Park in Limerick and, in the same year, construction commenced on the 140,000 sq. ft. second phase of Gateway Retail Park in Galway.

By 2022, Penneys were fitting out their new 60,000 sq. ft. store in The Square and we have also delivered a state of the art 13 screen cinema with the Movies@ group. Gorey Shopping Centre and The Mill Shopping Centre, Dublin were recently acquired and are also being managed by our team.

Sigma’s success is rooted in the relationships we’ve built along the way. From working closely with both global and national retail brands along with our capital partners, we know that true success comes from collaboration and hard work. Each partnership has not only been a strategic step in our company’s growth but have also allowed us to continuously offer our clients innovative, strategic solutions.

Recent examples of this include the delivery of Decathlon’s first major 50,000 sq. ft. store outside Dublin at Parkway in Limerick, two new Harvey Norman stores in Sligo and Galway measuring over 100,000 sq. ft. combined, the new Movies@ cinema and Penneys in The Square and the delivery of five new stores for JYSK, including their first ever Irish store in Naas. These are just some of the many examples of how Sigma’s strategic role has assisted with repositioning the assets we manage.

Like any company, we’ve also faced our fair share of challenges. For example, navigating through the Covid pandemic saw many retail and leisure operators being forced to close. This crisis required all the skills of The Sigma team to reach commercial agreement with our retail and leisure partners while also keeping our customers safe while, in parallel, adding value to the assets we manage in the longer term. We also worked closely with our capital partners and their lenders, advising them throughout that difficult time on over €300m of complex refinancing transactions which involved significant due diligence, robust financial modelling and cashflow forecasting.

As we look to the future, we remain committed to our mission: to innovate, inspire, and lead in the retail asset management sector. With an ever-changing but increasingly positive retail landscape, we’re excited to grow our relationships with our clients and retail partners, continue our engagement with existing and new retailers in the Irish market and we look forward to acquiring additional retail assets on behalf of our capital partners.

None of this would have been possible without the incredible support of our expert team, our clients, and our retail and professional partners. To everyone who has been a part of this journey – thank you! Your trust, dedication, and collaboration have been the foundation of our success.

Here’s to another 10 years of growth, innovation, and shared success.  We’re excited about the next decade and the opportunities it will bring.

Marcus & The Sigma Team