Media centre

Tuesday 11 Dec 2012

Network Rail station retail sales continue to beat the high street

Region & Route:

National

Network Rail today released station retail sales results showing a 2.37% growth in like-for-like sales from July to September 2012, compared to the same time the previous year. In the same period high street sales, reported by the British Retail Consortium, grew by 0.5%.

This is the ninth consecutive quarter station retail results have out outperformed the high street.

These figures were compiled from the results of retailers operating from over 580,000 sq ft of retail space (520 units/shops) at 17 of Britain’s biggest and busiest stations owned and operated by Network Rail, benefiting from a combined annual footfall of over a billion.

Top performing stations include London Bridge (+10.8%), followed by Manchester Piccadilly (+9.7%) and London Victoria (+7.7%), compared to the same period last year.

Gifts performed best in stations this quarter, reporting a 30.77% increase. Food and beverage offers continued to perform strongly, with sales in specialist food catering growing by 18.5%, bread growing by 9.75% and hot food by 8.12%.

These figures show that the Olympic effect failed to have a negative impact on station retail, which benefited from the increased footfall through stations as people used public transport to travel to the Games.

The completion of 20,000 sq ft of new retail space accessed by a new 220m balcony at Waterloo station this July, attracted a host of new brands to the station. Passengers and shoppers now have a wider choice of places to eat and shop, including YO! Sushi, Fat Face, Hotel Chocolat, Benugo, Oliver Bonas, Links of London, Sports Bar & Grill, Carluccio’s, Thomas Pink and new-to-station brand Joules.

David Biggs, director of property at Network Rail, said: “These are excellent results, and show that the high levels of footfall guaranteed in stations continue to give our retail partners the edge over the high street. Income from retail is a vital funding stream for Network Rail and strong results will allow us to deliver even great value for the British people.

"The launch of our new retail space at Waterloo was a crucial milestone in delivering our vision for retail, as we work to improve environments for passengers and shoppers, creating stations that are destinations in their own right with shopping that’s on the way not in the way. Waterloo gave us the opportunity to work with some exciting retail partners, and we look forward to continue working with new and existing brands as we build on recent successes with new developments across our portfolio of stations."

Earlier this month, Network Rail also won a gold award from the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC) for retail at King’s Cross station, beating off competition from major shopping centres across the country to take home the top prize in the refurbishment and extension category.

All profits from Network Rail’s retail activity is re-invested in the railway, limiting the cost to tax payers and passengers.