Tuesday 18 Sep 2012
NETWORK RAIL STATION RETAIL SALES RESULTS CONTINUE TO SHOW MODEST GROWTH
- Region & Route:
- National
Network Rail today released station retail sales results showing a 1.21% growth in like-for-like sales from April to June 2012, compared to the same time the previous year. In the same period high street sales, reported by the British Retail Consortium, fell by 0.2% – meaning retail sales in stations continue to outperform 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 Manchester Piccadilly (+11.2%), followed by London Victoria (+8.02%) and Fenchurch Street (+7.02%), compared to the same period last year. Engineering works in preparation for the Olympics and part station closures impacted on trading at Liverpool Street, Network Rail’s busiest station in London, as well as Waterloo and Paddington.
Food and beverage offers performed best in stations. Top performing categories were specialist food retail (+17.7%), specialist food catering (+13.7%), restaurants (+8.48%) and bars (+8.42%).
This current set of figures show growth has slightly slowed since the 4.15% increase reported last period (January to March 2012), which was Network Rail’s best quarterly growth in retail sales for the financial year of 2011/12. In the same period high street sales, as reported by the BRC, reported a growth of just 0.23%.
David Biggs, director of property at Network Rail, said: “While growth on the high street remains flat, retail in stations continues to grow. The wettest weather on record in 100 years, the extended Jubilee bank holiday weekend and an increase in major weekend engineering work in preparation for the Olympics all contributed towards some tougher periods for retail in stations. However, the fact we are still able to post an increase in revenue shows our stations still provide some of the most lucrative trading environments available to retailers today. “
The completion of 22,000 sq ft of new retail space across 22 new units in the new concourse at King’s Cross in March this year, attracted a host of new brands to the station. This quarter, two further additions to the station included American Apparel and Patisserie Valerie. After its first quarter of trading, the new space at King’s Cross has reported total sales in excess of £8m – an average weekly increase of 23%. Sales of over £34m are predicted by the end of 12 months trading – an increase of £15.6m from 2010/11. Retailers operating across all of Network Rail’s managed stations last year generated a total £592m in sales.
All profits from Network Rail’s retail activity is re-invested in the railway, limiting the cost to tax payers and passengers.
Notes to editors
Network Rail owns and manages 17 of Britain’s biggest and busiest stations:
National stations
- Birmingham New Street
- Edinburgh Waverley
- Gatwick Airport
- Glasgow Central
- Leeds
- Liverpool Lime Street
- Manchester Piccadilly
London stations
- Cannon Street
- Charing Cross
- Euston
- Fenchurch Street
- King’s Cross
- Liverpool Street
- London Bridge
- Paddington
- Victoria
- Waterloo
Network Rail:
- Is one of the largest land and property owners in the country and will generate over £1bn in the next five years from commercial activities for re-investment in our rail estate. This would be enough to transform Birmingham New Street or King’s Cross stations, or put in place 5,000km of new railway
- Has over 590,000 sq ft retail space at 17 of the largest stations across the country – that’s more retail space than Bluewater – showcasing many leading high-street brands
- Is also the country's largest provider of commercial property to small and medium sized businesses with over 7,000 properties nationwide
- In addition, works in partnership on existing development projects, including multi-million pound commercial schemes above our stations at London Bridge (Shard) and Cannon Street and our first multi-site joint venture: Solum Regeneration
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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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