Station retail bridges the gap for busy passengers
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, the three months from January to March 2019 saw like-for-like and total sales increase by 2.42 and 6.84% respectively, 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 BRC benchmark of 0.05% for the same period.
Niche station retail categories including technology up 105%), home and lifestyle up 25% and books up 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.
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.”
