Tuesday 21 Jun 2011
NETWORK RAIL STATION RETAILING CONTINUES TO SHOW GROWTH IN SALES
- Region & Route:
- National
Network Rail today released station retail sales results for January to March 2011 showing a 5.17% growth in like-for-like sales, compared to the same quarter the previous year. In the same quarter high street sales, as reported by the British Retail Consortium, declined by -0.8% meaning retail sales in stations have significantly outperformed the high-street.
The results follow the previous quarter’s trend (October to December 2011), which recorded a 5.02% growth in like-for-like sales, compared to the same quarter the previous year.
These figures were compiled from the results of retailers operating from over 560,000 sq ft of retail space (493 units/shops) at 16 of Britain’s biggest and busiest stations owned and operated by Network Rail, benefiting from a combined annual footfall of over a billion.
London stations recorded the best performance with Euston (11.6%) London Bridge (7.29%) and Charing Cross (6.9%), achieving the best results over the quarter. Strong trading results were also achieved at Edinburgh (8.5%) and Leeds (6.3%) stations.
Food and grocery categories continue to show the highest levels of growth across the portfolio with supermarkets posting a (13%) growth, specialist food catering brands up (10.8%) and restaurants with a (10.2%) increase in sales.
New openings this quarter have included Yo! Sushi in Manchester Piccadilly, Costa Mobile in Victoria and Euston Tap, a new real ale pub for Euston Station.
Network Rail’s head of retail Gavin McKechnie said: “In such a challenging economic climate these figures are very encouraging and mainly thanks to the consistently high footfall our stations benefit from and the creative work of our business partners delivering a more compelling offer to our customers. Whether the economy is good or bad people who commute to work by rail will still pass though our station giving our retail partners a real edge over the high street which they have capitalised upon.”
Jane Bevis, director of public affairs at the British Retail Consortium said: “These figures contrast markedly with the experience on high streets due to the strong footfall through Network Rail stations and the heavy London skew. They also demonstrate how shoppers are topping up at convenience stores, having managed the main weekly shopping budget very carefully.”
All profit from Network Rail’s retail activity is re-invested in the railway, limiting the cost to tax payers and passengers.
Notes to editors
Figures compiled from 16 of Britain’s biggest and busiest stations, owned and managed by Network Rail:
National stations
- Birmingham New Street
- Edinburgh Waverley
- Gatwick
- Glasgow Central
- Leeds
- Liverpool Lime Street
- Manchester Piccadilly
London stations
- Charing Cross
- Euston
- Fenchurch Street
- King’s Cross
- Liverpool Street
- London Bridge
- Victoria
- Paddington
- Waterloo
Network Rail’s top performing categories:
Supermarkets (+13%)
- M&S Simply Food
- Whistlestop
- Sainsbury’s
- Thresher
Specialist Hot Food Catering (+10.8%)
- 1st Class Fruit
- Boost
- Krispy Kreme
- Millies Cookies
- Moma Foods
- Nothing But The Fruit
- Souper Douper
- Wasabi
Restaurants (+10.2%)
- Nandos
- Moshi Moshi
- Ponti’s
- Yo! Sushi
As part of the continued investment in stations to increase capacity and improve the environment for passengers, 75,000 sq. ft of exciting new retail space is being created at Waterloo, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and King’s Cross stations.
- Manchester Piccadilly: The existing mezzanine will be used to provide seven new restaurants, totalling nearly 12,000 sq ft. The first new unit, Yo! Sushi, opened in spring 2011.
- London Waterloo: Opening spring 2012. A stunning 220 metre-long balcony will be built along almost the full length of the concourse at first-floor level creating 20,000 sq ft of new retail space. This will allow the currently over congested concourse to be cleared, creating significantly more space and improved passenger flow to and from Waterloo East.
- King’s Cross: Opening spring 2012. The creation of a brand new concourse will mean passengers will enjoy over 27,000 sq ft of new shops and restaurants.
- Birmingham New Street: Opening 2014. A striking new station concourse, including 16,000 sq ft of new retail space will bring passengers a bigger choice of shops and restaurants.
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.
- Already has over 560,000 sq ft retail space at 16 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 7000 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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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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