Luxury shopping and the ‘Black Friday‘ effect have driven a significant increase in footfall and retail sales as St. Pancras International continues to prove its credentials as a renowned shopping destination.
In its pre-Christmas retail figures, the four weeks leading up to 6th December, a 17% surge in footfall has driven an overall sales increase of 15%, and a 9% like-for-like increase. 167,183 shoppers visited the station over this period.
St Pancras has also seen a strong performance from established luxury brands at the station such as Fortnum & Mason, who are boasting record profits that they attribute to the opening of their new outlets, and Searcys Champagne bar, who have seen strong like-for-like growth over the past two months.
Retailers at the station are also experiencing healthy growth. Indulgent chocolate brand Godiva, which had a pop-up store at the station, now boasts its own permanent location with a much wider product range. It had also just opened the ‘Truffle Express‘, which is unique to St Pancras and allows customers to create their own chocolates. The station also continues to attract the biggest names in retail, with John Lewis opening its ‘click and collect‘ store in October.
Wendy Spinks, Commercial Director of HS1 Ltd, which owns St Pancras International, said:
“These early Christmas figures are reflective of what has been a fantastic year for retail at St Pancras and cements the station‘s reputation as an excellent place to do your Christmas shopping. With the arrival of a retailer such as John Lewis this year helping to drive the particularly the impressive footfall figures around Black Friday, we are confident that Christmas 2014 will be the best yet for St Pancras.”
Last year saw a strong performance from the retailers at St Pancras International, with Christmas sales up 6%. Management at St Pancras International is highly confident that this year‘s Christmas sales will be even stronger than 2013 as the station is quickly growing its reputation as a destination in itself for high-end shopping and food and drink, away from more traditional retail destinations such as Oxford St and large shopping centres.
Spinks added:
“Travel retail is a booming industry and we have seen annual sales increase year on year at St Pancras since 2009. More than 48 million people visit the station every year, a quarter of whom are not passengers and come specifically to take advantage of the diverse retailers and food and drink on offer. The fantastic mix of well-known high street names and boutique independent retailers create a unique shopping experience in one of London‘s most iconic locations.”
