Vodafone and Apmart lower their costs by rent renegotiations

Under the circumstances of the worldwide economic downturn, rent renegotiations give companies unique opportunity to save substantial part of their costs without cutting down the production and laying their staff off. The latest rent renegotiations of Vodafone and Apmart prove it.

Vodafone, the international telecommunications company and No. 3 on the Czech market, decided to renegotiate their lease terms in three of their ICT centers. „The target of Vodafone was to extend current lease contracts in three of their technical locations in order to lower the rent rates, eventually to reach further incentives from the landlord,“ says Karel Stránský, Managing Partner and Director of Industrial Department of Colliers International Czech Republic, who represented Vodafone in the negotiations. Simona Straková, Real Estate Development Manager at Vodafone, confirms his words: „Thanks to Colliers International, we have reached substantial rent savings in three of our key locations.“

Also, rent renegotiations of Apmart, the sole importer and reseller of Cactus Clone and Disney by Cactus designer clothes, had the same target – substantial rent savings. Apmart uses 1 800 sq m of warehouse space and more than 560 sq m of offices in total in a modern class A industrial park in Prague – East district. „During negotiations with the developer, we have secured for our client 50% rent savings for the upcoming period, interesting rent vacation for part of the office space and the right to sublease part of the premises to other subtenants,“ cites Stránský.

The rent represents generally the second highest cost in company’s income statement. Thanks to the current outhang of supply over demand on the real estate market, more and more companies use the opportunity to save considerable part of their fixed costs. „The current market situation gives the tenants unusually strong position. That’s a great opportunity to save considerable costs, if the tenants proceed to rent renegotiations, eventually to complete relocations of their premises,“ concludes Stránský.

source : Colliers