The 'Hymanator' attacks camera store rents

The owners of some cameras stores may be able to save a substantial amount on rent by re-classifying their type of business.

Veritax Business Consultants’ Hymie Zawatzky, speaking at the PMA conference in Melbourne earlier this month, said that some camera stores that do an average of 20% of their sales in film processing have been able to get shopping centre classification under a second category resulting in a substantial saving in rent.

Zawatzky, or the self-described ‘Hymanator’, said the latest rental benchmarks produced by Urbis showed that the gross rent for a top 10 regional shopping centre under the ‘Film processing and photography’ category was $1799 per square metre.

By comparison, the gross rent for the same space under ‘Electrical/sound/computers’ was $1253 per square metre – or 30% less.

Zawatzky said over the past five months small business retailing had just experienced “one of the worst ever periods.”

He advised photo retailers “not to be afraid” to ask for a substantial rental reduction at the start of a new lease because landlords will be reluctant to lose tenants who pay their rent regularly.

He also advised camera store owners to isolate storage areas within their stores to achieve a lower rent for non-display areas.