LONDON RETAILERS RESIST UK SALES DROP

21 April 2008

• Retail sales in Central London in March were 2.0% higher than a year earlier, on a like-for-like basis, well below the 10.8% in March 2007 but better than the 1.6% fall in the UK as whole. 
• Retail footfall weakened slightly, though remained just above its year-earlier level.
• Western Europeans remained the main overseas shoppers, benefiting from the strength of the Euro, while Americans were still discouraged by the weak dollar.
• Food benefited from Easter but elsewhere, underlying trade slowed. Clothing and footwear sales were particularly tough, despite continued discounting.  Homewares, especially larger purchases, continued to struggle as consumers faced shrinking disposable incomes.
  

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said:

“London’s retailers continue to resist the effects of the more severe slowdown affecting the rest of the UK. Grim weather snatched away much of the boost that many retailers would normally expect from Easter but the increased attraction of London to Eurozone visitors and a strong focus on delivering, better than ever, value for money are working to keep London sales growth positive.”

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, said:

"Central London's retailers just managed to squeeze out marginal like-for-like growth in March, in contrast to the rest of the UK where like-for-like sales fell by 1.6%.  Although there are significant differences in the performance of individual London retailers, they all continue to hope that shoppers in the capital will be more resilient to the spending slowdown.  The threat of large numbers of City job losses does not bode well.