Press Release

Highest London sales growth since February

Monday, July 21 2008

·  Retail sales in Central London in June were 8.7% higher than a year earlier, on a like-for-like basis. This was slightly weaker than the 11.0% in June 2007 but stronger than the 0.4% decline in the UK as whole. 

·  Retail footfall was only slightly weaker than in May and remained above its year-earlier level, helped by clearance sales and high petrol prices which discouraged out-of-town shopping trips.

·  Western Europeans remained the main overseas shoppers, taking advantage of the strength of the Euro, while Americans and Japanese were still discouraged by the weak dollar and yen.

·  Food sales held up well and clothing and footwear benefited from clearance events and continued discounting.  Homewares, especially big-ticket items such as furniture, remained tough, hit by housing market weakness and squeeze on household budgets

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said, "This is a strong result for London. The mood among central London customers is clearly different from the rest of the UK. Londoners’ higher average incomes, spending by overseas visitors and the rising costs of driving to shopping centres further afield have pushed up shopper numbers and spending.
"Much of that is being driven by early sales and the most widespread price cutting in recent history but the contrast with the rest of the UK, which has experienced negative like-for-like growth in three of the last four months, is stark."

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, said, "Central London has once again outperformed the UK. However, the like-for-like sales increase of 8.7% over a year ago has been driven by outperformance by certain businesses in the capital - some of the department stores in particular - and should not be seen as representative of greater London as a whole. Those that have done well have bought forward their summer sale activity in order to drive footfall and increase sales."