Wednesday 18 Feb 2015
Network Rail station retail records strong growth
- Region & Route:
- National
A strong Christmas sales period, coupled with consistent October and November trading has helped Network Rail record positive like-for-like retail sales growth of 6.06% in the final quarter of 2014, the 11th successive quarter or growth. The British Retail Consortium in contrast announced 0.10% growth for the quarter.
The results again point to the changing consumer buying behaviours within both the retail and food and beverage sectors. Passengers and station users are increasingly seeking travel hub convenience and spending time in stations as they continue to become destinations in their own right.
The top three stations for like-for-like growth during the period were London Waterloo (20.51%), Birmingham New Street (11.12%) and Liverpool Lime Street (9.57%), showing the trend is not just in London but across Britain.
Network Rail's head of retail Samantha Turner said: The results show Network Rail is giving passengers the brands and convenience they want at stations.
“Around 214 million people passed through Britain's biggest stations between October and December 2014, almost 10 million more than in 2013, and our figures show people are spending, with more than one in three visiting a retail unit; that’s over 72 million."
She added: “We continue to listen to station users so we can create a retail environment to meet their needs. Bespoke, quality brands are a big part of our long-term strategy and new concepts from Itsu and Junction Urban Street Food to Dutch retailer Hema are helping make our stations great places to meet, eat, shop and travel.”
The top five categories for the period were; Pubs & Bars (18.30%), Gifting (18.18%), Dining (14.74%), Bread (13.30%) and Books (12.10%).
Christmas retail trading at Network Rail’s managed stations was the busiest on record growing 15.8%, with like-for-like sales growing by 10.7%
Network Rail reinvests all profits from its commercial activities back into the railway, creating a better railway for a better Britain.
Notes to editors
Network Rail
- reinvests all profits from commercial activities into Britain’s railway infrastructure
- is one of the largest land and property owners in the country and during the five-year period which ended on 31 March 2014, generated £1.4bn from commercial activities for re-investment in its rail estate. This is enough to transform Birmingham New Street or King’s Cross station, or put in place 5,000km of new railway
- has over 450 retail units encompassing 140 brands at 18 of the largest stations across the country
- is also the country's largest provider of commercial property to small and medium sized businesses, with over 7,000 properties nationwide
- works in partnership to develop railway land and property no longer required for operational use, including multi-million pound commercial schemes above our station at Birmingham New Street and joint ventures with the likes of Ballymore, Bloc, Kier and The Office Group
- owns and manages 18 of Britain’s biggest and busiest stations (as well as managing St Pancras International on behalf of HS1 Ltd)
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About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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