New Street Station shop sales increase by 25pc

RETAILERS at new-look Birmingham New Street’s Grand Central shopping centre enjoyed a jingle tills Christmas registering a huge growth in sales.

It was the best performing station in England, achieving a 26 per cent growth in sales compared with the same festive period in 2015.

David Biggs, Network Rail’s managing director of property, said its strategy of bringing in “new and exciting retailers” was paying off.

“The quality and diversity of gifts, food and beverage options now available to station users is a direct result of station investment across the UK, including in major regional hubs such as Birmingham New Street. Our major retail developments and our strategy to bring in new and exciting retailers is helping us achieve our long-term goal of improving the station experience for our customers, while crucially generating vital funds to reinvest back into the railway,” he said.

Over the past five years, Network Rail’s ongoing investment at stations across the UK has helped deliver stations that were not just places to travel to and from, but destinations in their own right, including the £1 billion redevelopment of Birmingham New Street completed in 2015, he added.

Nationally, Network Rail reported a 9.5 per cent sales growth across its managed stations between November 19 and December 24.

Statistics show that 32 per cent of total station users – almost 34 million people across Britain – visited a station in that period. The indication is that stations are becoming key destinations for last-minute gifts, supermarket shopping and preChristmas dining.

Food and drink outlets performed particularly well, with the top five outlets in stations recording an average of 50 per cent growth over the period.

Retail outlets, driven by gift purchases, grew by 24 per cent while station supermarket sales rose by four per cent over the festive period.