Food and drink sales at railway stations continue to rise
Like-for-like, retail sales at the 16 stations owned and managed by Network Rail rose 2.54 per cent in the third quarter of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011 and show a moderate increase on the previous quarter's like-for-like rise of 2.37 per cent.
Jonathan Crick, commercial director of retail at Network Rail, said compared to the high street, where growth had remained flat, railway stations were showing impressive results when it came to retail sales.
"This strong performance is impressive taking into account the challenging economic climate we face, and is thanks to investment in rail and growth in passenger numbers," he said. "The guaranteed high levels of footfall in our stations provide our retail partners with some of the most lucrative trading environments available in the marketplace today.
Dining destinations
Both King's Cross and Waterloo stations in London have seen new restaurants, bars and food kiosks open as part of re-development plans for the stations and operators with sites there, such as Yalla Yalla, Giraffe, Prezzo (King's Cross), Carluccio's, Benugo and Corney & Barrow's new concept C&B Cabin (Waterloo) are already seeing benefits according to Network Rail.
During the third quarter of 2012, retailers at King's Cross, whose results were not included in the like-for-like stats, generated £10m of sales and saw a 137 per cent increase on the same period the previous year. However, this was compared to a period when the number of retail units in the old southern concourse was significantly lower.
Top performing stations include London Bridge, which saw an increase of 23.27 per cent in the third quarter and London Victoria whose sales went up by 7.32 per cent compared to the same period the previous year.
The best performing retail categories were specialist food (+11.27 per cent), bread (+9.64%) and pubs and bars (+5.93%).
