London retailers see sales growth

Retail sales grew by almost 9% during June, indicating that London consumers are feeling less of a squeeze than the rest of the country, the Retail Sales Monitor by the British Retail Consortium (BCI) and financial services company KPMG said today.

The BRC said one of the factors influencing the figure could be high fuel prices, which have ‘discouraged out-of town shopping trips’. Clearance sales and price cutting have also added to the rise, they said.

The growth was significantly higher than in the rest of the country, where sales declined by 0.4%.

The highest sellers were food, clothing and footwear, which benefitted from continued discounting. However, with the housing market hit by falling sales and a squeeze on household budgets, furniture and homewares retailers were less lucky.

BRC director general Stephen Robertson said 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,” he said.

“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 at financial at KPMG added: “Central London has once again outperformed the UK. However, the sales increase 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.”

© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008