Christmas retail trading (29 November to 27 December 2014) at Network Rail’s 18 managed stations was the busiest on record growing 15.8%, with like-for-like sales growing by 10.7%, according to figures released on January 20, 2015, by the rail operator.
The data indicates consumers’ appetites for convenience shopping and dining at travel hubs is growing, as their high street habits continue to change.
“We’re bringing retailers to our stations that give customers what they want in the time they have available and our results are showing this strategy is working,” Managing Director of Network Rail Property, David Biggs, said.
London station King’s Cross was the best performing across the network with Christmas period sales growth of almost 50 per cent. Stations outside of London also mirrored the festive trend with Glasgow and Birmingham growing by 26 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.
Director of Retail – Network Rail Property, Hamish Kiernan, said the boom Christmas period added to a successful year for the station retail sector, highlighted by some significant top-line figures.
“The numbers as a whole are staggering; almost 850 million people visited our stations in 2014 and of those people, over 34% chose to visit one of our retail units. That’s around 289 million people, a significant rise of over 13% compared to 2013,” Kiernan said.
photo: Network Rail
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