Station retail bridges the gap for busy passengers: London Bridge retail

Monday 3 Jun 2019

Station retail bridges the gap for busy passengers

Region & Route:
National
  • Network Rail sales grew 4.36% in 2018/19 financial year with like-for-like sales up 1.32%
  • Over 250 million customers visited a Network Rail retailer in 2018/19
  • London Bridge sales have doubled following significant retail investment
  • Every penny of profit from retail sales is reinvested back into the railway

Network Rail’s largest station retail offer is proving hugely popular with passengers, according to the company’s latest retail results released today.

The transformed London Bridge station - which houses over 70 purpose-built shops, making it Network Rail’s biggest retail offer - has doubled its total sales for the first three months of 2019 compared to the same period last year. It recorded over £14million in purchases, while sales for the 2018/19 financial year grew by over 75%.

Across Network Rail’s managed station estate*, Q4 (January-March 2019) like-for-like (2.42%) and total sales (6.84%) increased steadily, rounding out another successful financial year for Network Rail’s retailers despite a difficult wider retail trading environment.

In the 2018/19 financial year, Network Rail retailers welcomed over a quarter of a billion customers into their stores leading to significant retail sales growth of 4.36%. Like-for-like sales were steady at 1.32%, well above the British Retail Consortium** (BRC) figure of 0.05% for the same period.

Niche station retail categories including technology (+105%), home and lifestyle (+25%), and books (+18%) all proved popular purchases in the last year, showing shoppers are looking to stations for traditional high-street items as well as the usual on-the-go food and small purchase offers.   

These results mark the eighth straight year, and 32nd successive quarter, that like-for-like sales have increased for Network Rail. Every penny of profit from retail sales is reinvested back into the railway.

David Biggs, managing director of Network Rail Property said: “We know that convenience is king for our busy passengers and station users. That’s why we are delivering a passenger-centric retail offer across our estate and are pleased it continues to be successful despite some tough market conditions.

“We’re committed to delivering a positive experience for the 900 million people who use our stations each year. We continue to work with our colleagues to create modern railway stations that are also destinations in their own right – great places for people to shop, eat, socialise and travel.”

Notes to editors

About Network Rail Property

Network Rail Property is the land and commercial division of Network Rail, tasked with generating funds to be reinvested back into the railway. Our projects help deliver transport and station-led regeneration, housing, jobs and economic growth.

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

 

Please note that Guildford and Clapham Junction stations are not included in the retail figures as we have only recently taken them into our portfolio.

BRC figures: **BRC figures provide a snapshot of the retail industry from over 5,000 retail businesses

Like-for-like sales compare sales in one period with those for a previous period, taking into account exactly the same number of stores. 

Total sales encompass all retail sales e.g if new stores have opened these will also be included.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Jack Harvey
Jack.Harvey2@networkrail.co.uk

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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