Silverburn boss on challenge of running big shopping centre

Part of the Pierotti family, famous in Paisley for their fish and chip shop where he worked as a boy, David Pierotti has retail in his blood.

He has spent his entire career in the sector from a 16 year-old in Burton Menswear, quickly becoming a store manager and then regional boss in charge of several shops, and then senior management roles at BHS, when it was a major high street presence.

Now, he is responsible for one of the country’s biggest shopping centres, Silverburn.

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Shopping centre is a bit of a misnomer though, as it quickly becomes apparent from talking to him that Silverburn doesn’t survive on shops alone and has, out of necessity, become so much more.

What he is running is akin to a self-contained town centre, with a range of businesses and amenities, privately owned, staffed, managed and maintained.

While the high streets and city centres are struggling with footfall, shop closures, and a narrative of decline, Silverburn, while not immune to the closures, has seen growth.

He is quick to spill the figures: “We're currently trading, year to date November, 18% up on footfall this year against last year.

“And sales 8% up on a like for like year to date to November. With total sales up by 27%.”

Silverburn’s customers are the retailers and leisure firms, big names, and famous brands and his job is to create an attractive environment that people want to visit and provide his customers with their customers.

He gets to the challenge of keeping the customers coming.

Rather than a place where people come out of necessity to buy stuff they need it is a wider social experience that brings them in and brings them back.

He said: “We've found from a marketing perspective, we've had to work a lot harder this year than previous years to tempt customers to come to Silverburn.

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“And I think that's only right and proper. So what I mean by tempting, would be things like during the summer we did a beach, then later in the year we had Halloween events.”

A farmers market and a cinema are other traditional non-shopping centre attractions that has brought people in.

He rattles off the blockbusters that have enticed people to Silverburn in 2023: “Hunger Games, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Napoleon Wonka, Mario Brothers. The cinema definitely helped us this year.”

Working in a family chippy may be a far cry from managing Silverburn but it laid the foundation for a successful future career.

He said: “I was working in chip shops. From probably the age of five. I was dealing with the Prince and the pauper.

“The Pierotti’s chip shops were well known in Paisley. The family business trained me at a very young age how to engage with different people.”

The value of that early experience, one he shared with his two younger brothers, is about the variety of human interaction.

He said: “The three of us worked with other fellow human beings. Good guys, bad guys and maybe not so nice guys.”

David reflects on those early experiences: “Working in the chip shop, maybe I didn't appreciate it at the time.

“I maybe hated it at the time, but it gave me a good upbringing to go into Burton and then to progress my retail career pretty swiftly at a young age.”

It may be a cliché ‘keeping the customer satisfied’ but it's not wrong and keeping it fresh to always offer something new is important to not stand still and be overtaken.

He said: “In 2023 we opened Bread Meats Bread, Donner Shack, the White Stuff, Rituals, and the Real Greek.

“And that's just to name a few. And we've also got in the pipeline quite a few other, new store openings. So again, that gives a customer a reason to come to check out what's going on.”

In the plans for 2024, he reveals another side to Silverburn, something you wouldn’t readily associate with a shopping centre.

His team is planning a work hub for adults and a homework hub for children.

He explains the thinking: “It will give people the ability to meet friends and do a wee bit of work.

“One of the things, through surveys, that we've understood is people enjoy other people's company and with the challenging two years we had during Covid, people are missing the interaction.

“People are now working less from home but maybe there's a bit of flexibility with a lot of employers.

“So, this work hub will give people the opportunity to come and maybe have an informal meeting, interview or to do a bit of work or for kids even to do homework.

“Kids that maybe are coming from a challenged environment. I think that's really going to be exciting this year.”

While retail is going through its most challenging time, adapting and changing is, he says, the key to success.

He said: “I think why places or destinations like Silverburn have actually grown and maybe outperformed our peer group is because we've remained relevant.”

“Variety,” he said is key. “Introducing food, beverage, leisure, cinema and not just shops.

“People want variety. Continental Europe's done it for a while, America has done it for a while. American shopping centres have got a broad church of different services.

“What Silverburn does is give a broad church of experiences within an attractive and safe environment.”

He is keen to stress the “safe, clean, warm and secure” aspect of the centre, adding: “There's really no reason to go anywhere else.”

He said: “It's not all down to me. I've got the best team in Scotland and I couldn't do it without the team.”

And when asked if he ever fancies a return to the family tradition and open a chippy, she said: “That ship has sailed”.