Retail sales at Britain‘s busiest railway stations have continued to outperform the high-street, according to figures from Network Rail.
Station retail sales for July- September 2013 grew 4.74 per cent compared to the same period last year. British Retail Consortium figures shows high-street sales grew by 1.5 per cent over the same period.
Newly refreshed Kings Cross was the top performer (+28.4 per cent), followed by Edinburgh Waverly (+13.1 per cent) and Manchester Piccadilly (13.1 per cent.)
The growing convenience trend was shown by the success of supermarkets who saw a sales surge of 9.75 per cent whilst pub and bars sales grew 6.9 per cent.
Network Rail is investing heavily in infrastructure to boost its retail offering over the next few years and is planning to develop commercial projects at London Bridge (Shard) and Cannon St.
Network Rail‘s retail commercial director, Hamish Kiernan, said the figures showed that stations have become trading environments for retailers.
“The huge growth in sales at King‘s Cross, where the new western concourse has given people a much wider choice of food, drink and retail brands, shows that investment in bigger, better stations can benefit passengers, businesses and the wider public.”
