Dubai: Don’t hold back on creating the new — it’s a time-tested formula Dubai’s mall owners in their expansion programmes or building new massive capacities. It’s a strategy that serving their counterparts in Abu Dhabi too.

A new report from the property consultancy firm CBRE finds Top 5 spots for both Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the destinations to be for global retailers seeking fresh territories last year. Abu Dhabi confirmed 55 new retail/leisure brands as tenants for its swanky new malls and shopping destinations in the making. It placed the emirate behind Tokyo, which had 63 new entrants, and Singapore with 58. Yas Mall’s opening was the catalyst for the many new arrivals, as were the Galleria and Al Maryah Central.

It was last year that US department store majors Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s confirmed their signings for Abu Dhabi, with the openings scheduled by 2018.

Dubai claimed the fifth spot with 45 new names added to its already well-established retail ranks, behind Taipei, which attracted 49, according to the CBRE findings, released on Monday.

“There are some notable differences between Dubai/Abu Dhabi and rest of the world in terms of which retail categories the additions are happening,” said Nick Maclean, regional Managing Director at CBRE. “For instance, you don’t see global consumer electronics retailers trying to make a mark here ... the upcoming Apple (Inc.) owned store is the only exception.”

Obviously, local electronics retailers have sewn up the market among themselves at the mid to higher end of the retail spectra, while smaller outfits operating out of cubbyholes in the city’s byways and souqs take care of the lower priced, high volume bulk shipments. Trying to find a niche for a rank newcomer within such an environment is rated as next to impossible ... unless of course it’s a brand with a cachet such as Apple.

But when it comes to another category, new brands are only too willing to give it a try. “You still see new international F&B offerings trying to get into what is already a highly saturated marketplace here,” said Maclean.

On whether all of the F&B concepts trying their luck do make the cut a year or two into their operations, Maclean said: “It’s the independent and specialist restaurants that find it most difficult to adjust to fickle customer preferences. That more than high rentals are a factor in their closures.”

But for each new closure, there would be another — and many more — untested F&B provider serving it up. In fact, local mall developers have been paying particular attention to expanding their F&B choices, both in the fast-serve and fine dining spaces. At its ongoing Dh1.2 billion mall-wide expansion, Dubai Festival City decided to bring together all of its F&B options into a single, much expanded food court rather than the split-up format that is there now.

On Abu Dhabi’s fast-track rise into prominence as a destination, Maclean said: “Despite the rate of new signings, the retailer presence is still nothing like what you see in Dubai. That means there will be lots more happening in Abu Dhabi’s retail space, with the likes of Galleria still drawing new brands.”