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Friday 6 Mar 2020

All aboard: Festive cheer drives impressive retail results

Region & Route:

National

• Passengers flock to station retailers in the last three months of 2019
• Network Rail reports 4.48% total sales growth at Britain’s biggest and busiest stations, continuing to buck a negative high street trend
• Food and drink categories led the charge with passengers’ appetites for places to meet, eat, shop and travel continuing to grow

Station sales grew by 4.48% in the last three months of 2019, as Network Rail invest in a passenger focussed retail offer.

In total, Network Rail recorded more than £228 million in sales during the last three months of 2019, with every penny of profit reinvested back into the railway.

Retailers in bakery (+7.2), fast food (+7.1%), grocery (+6.4%), news, books and confectionary (+5.8%) and pubs and bars (+5.3%) performed particularly well, with passengers’ appetites for places to meet, eat and shop continuing to grow.

Brands in the home and lifestyle categories also saw strong growth (+5.9%), with the festive season driving convenience spending amongst busy passengers.

These results reflect the success of Network Rail’s retail strategy, which aims to create a varied and high-quality offer to meet passengers’ growing demand for choice, convenience and experience.

London Bridge (+48.2%) showed the highest total sales growth in the UK, with the sales surge correlating to Network Rail’s significant investment in retail at the station, particularly the introduction of new dining outlets and a premium bar.

The figures, which reflect sales between 1 October and 31 December, also show growth of 4.2% in like-for-like sales despite a difficult wider trading environment, with high-street sales falling by 0.9%* in the same period.

David Biggs, Managing Director, Network Rail Property, said: “We know that passengers want convenience and choice, and today’s results show that our strategy is delivering just that. As our retail offer evolves, stations are becoming much more than just transport hubs - they’re now destinations in their own right.”

The positive Q3 sales figures round off a strong year for station retail, which recorded over £215 million in sales across all managed stations in Q2 and over £211 million in Q1.

Notes to editors

*Source – BRC

Network Rail managed stations*

National stations	London stations
Birmingham New Street	Cannon Street
Bristol Temple Meads	Charing Cross
Edinburgh Waverley	Clapham Junction
Glasgow Central	Euston
Guildford	King’s Cross
Leeds	London Bridge
Liverpool Lime Street	Liverpool Street
Manchester Piccadilly	Paddington
Reading	St Pancras International (lower level) Retail at St Pancras is managed by HS1
	Victoria
	Waterloo