London retail sales lead slips

18 May 2009

• Retail sales in central London in April were 5.4% higher than a year ago, on a like-for-like basis, stronger than the 4.6% increase in the UK as whole.
• Easter falling in April this year but in March last year, together with warm sun this April but cold and rain last April, make comparisons difficult.
  
• Retail footfall in April held up well as the warmer sunny weather brought shoppers out. Shopper numbers were up on a year ago, in line with those in the UK as a whole.
• The favourable exchange rate continued to attract overseas visitors, especially those from Western Europe, but the effect of sterling’s weakness on US visitors was less marked.
• Warmer sunny weather, especially at Easter, helped clothing, footwear and outdoor leisure but homewares and furniture sales remained generally tough, especially for larger purchases.

APRIL Central London Like-for-Like % change on year ago +5.4% UK 4.6%

FEB-APR Central London Like-for-Like % change on year ago +5.5% UK 0.4%

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

"Sunshine and Easter didn't give London sales growth the big boost they provided for the rest of the UK but that's because the London figures were already well up on other parts of the country.

"Overall, London's customers are proving more resilient to recession. Since the start of the year, London retail sales have consistently outperformed the country as a whole with average growth for the year so far of 5.7 per cent compared with almost no growth for the whole UK and London continued that sort of performance into April.

"It was another month of solid sales results for London with other parts of the UK playing catch-up."

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, said:

"Spending in the capital continues to hold up - in large part due to overseas visitors continuing to take advantage of favourable exchange rates and greater numbers of UK visitors holidaying at home. So, good news for retailers in London, who continue to outperform the rest of the UK. However, given the timing of Easter - March in 2008 and April in 2009 - we might have expected a larger uplift in April, particularly given the trend for higher sales over recent months. The summer also looks to be more challenging as the figures were strong from May to August in 2008, so will be much harder to beat this year."

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