Greater London Offers Hope To Retailers As Footfall Dips In June

As footfall on the UK high street continued to dip in June, Greater London bucked the national trend as its diverse economy made it the only region to experience an uplift in footfall, according to Springboard’s National High Street Index.
By: Katie Blake
 
July 11, 2011 - PRLog -- As footfall on the UK high street continued to dip in June, Greater London bucked the national trend as its diverse economy made it the only region to experience an uplift in footfall, according to Springboard’s National High Street Index.

Whilst nationally, footfall on high streets and town centres declined by -2.2% year-on-year, Greater London saw a positive +0.7% year-on-year increase.

Springboard, the leading town centre footfall organisation which monitors over 85 towns and cities, identified that, despite regional cities across the UK seeing an average year-on-year decline in footfall of -4.7% , a number of densely populated areas offer further glimmers of hope. In Guildford footfall jumped by +12.5% year-on-year; Cardiff saw a +10.1% uplift on the previous year and Croydon experienced a +17.9% leap in annual footfall.

Diane Wehrle, Research Director at Springboard, says, “Whilst there are good news stories from some towns, the North South divide tightened its grip in June – Greater London was the only region in England to experience annual growth in footfall seeing an increase of +0.7%. The South West and the South East experienced only minimal declines in footfall, of -0.1% and -2% respectively.

“Regions such as the Midlands, the North and Wales felt the impact of a new wave of job losses and anticipated redundancies. Bombardier, who lost a crucial Thameslink contract, is set to lose 1,400 staff at its Derby plant, which has compounded already low consumer confidence and spending ability outside of the bubble of the South.”

June’s star performing towns and cities;

Town   Year-on-Year change in footfall
Croydon   17.9%
Woolwich   13.2%
Guildford   12.5%
Cardiff   10.1%
Kensington, London   8.7%
Nottingham   8.4%
Brixton   7.8%
Victoria, London   7.7%
Mansfield   6.9%
London West End   6.1%
Hull   5.7%



Springboard’s National High Street Index reveals that Wales – with a high proportion of its workforce employed within the public sector – saw the greatest year-on-year decline in footfall of all UK regions for the second month running – an annual fall of 10.2%, following a drop of 11.3% in May. Wales was followed by the West Midlands which saw an annual decline of -8.0% in June.

Diane Wehrle, Research Director at Springboard, continues, “In previous months this year we have seen a softening in annual footfall decline. This month, however, the annual decline is more notable compared to last June’s small annual decline of -0.4%. Yet it is important to remember that the high street is not re-experiencing the recession and the outlook is far more positive than it was in 2009 when we saw a dramatic annual footfall decline of -7.7%.”

Steve Booth, CEO of Springboard, says, “Undoubtedly the retail industry is continuing to be challenged but there are signs of resilience in Greater London and other parts of the country such as Guildford, Woolwich and Cardiff. Overall, the high street is in better shape than in 2009 as footfall decline is much less notable. This suggests a recovery but the heat wave in June, which attracted shoppers to the park or kept them in their gardens, made it a tricky month for retail.”

Kevin Lorimer, Chairman of Guildford’s Town Centre Management Group, says, “Our extensive range of stores, covering the full spectrum from Primark to Hugo Boss, makes the town an attractive place to go shopping, both for those in Guildford and from other parts of Surrey considering the excellent transport links from the station. We are also helped by the fact that there is no out of town shopping mall to compete with. The town has continued to attract investment like the £20m refurbishment of the Friary shopping centre, which has already brought in new stores like Banana Republic and Holister.  There is also a very strong working relationship between Guildford Town Centre Management and Guildford Borough Council to roll out strong marketing initiatives. Together, these factors have helped us see an increase in footfall of over 12% compared to last June.”


-ENDS-

For further information please contact Hannah Adam at Rain UK:
0207 828 0118 / 07709 428 578
firstname.surname@raincommunications.co.uk

Notes to Eds:
Springboard is the leading provider of automated footfall monitoring services for entire range of customer generating environments including the UK’s high streets, retail parks and shopping centres. Springboard’s data tracker gathers footfall counts continuously, 24 hours a day, across 85 UK towns and cities with 24,888 hourly counts a day, 174,216 a week and 696,864 a month. Springboard’s National High Street Index, published in collaboration with the Association of Town Centre Management, provides the only available measure of town centre performance. More information about the ATCM can be found at www.atcm.org
End
Source:Katie Blake
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Tags:Springboard, High Street, London, Shopping, Spending
Industry:Shopping, Tourism
Location:South West London - London, Greater - England
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