London’s St Pancras International train station has signed a string of new retailers in an effort to “reflect trends” and maintain the strong sales seen over the Christmas period.
WHSmith, which has come to rely heavily on its travel retail arm in recent years, is poised to open a new concept pilot store in place of women’s fashion brand Monsoon which is vacating St Pancras.
The new concept store will prioritise electronic goods like mobile accessories, moving away from its traditional magazine and book model.
Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer will move into WHSmith’s current space on the ground floor and opt to focus on general merchandise.
Nespresso will also replace Links of London on the ground floor, while the jeweller will downsize to the current Pen Shop space.
The signings follow a strong Christmas period at the station, seeing retail sales rise 10.1 per cent over the 10-week festive period.
“As we hit the new year, we have started another sequence of changes in some quite substantial parts of the station,” commercial director at HS1, which manages St Pancras, Wendy Spinks said.
“Most of our leases are signed for five to six years, because we want to be able to bring in new brands and reflect trends.
“For example, we are shrinking the space we will use for jewellery retail in the station, but we will complement that with theatre activity at key jewellery times, such as Valentine’s Day.”
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