Westfield UK visitors jump but sales are flat

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 23, 2018

Shopping malls giant Westfield has reported rising footfall for last year at its UK centres. However, sales at the two malls barely budged year-on-year as the UK market remained tough for retailers in general and especially for the fashion brands that make up a huge chunk of the firm’s tenants.

Visitor numbers rose by around two million to the company’s Westfield London and Stratford City malls. As well as the tough market backdrop, the almost-flat sales suggest that showrooming - whereby shoppers check/try on goods in-store but then buy them online - could also be a key factor.

The Westfield London mall saw 27.5 million visitors and retailer sales of £1.01 billion. Meanwhile Stratford City had much higher visitor numbers (as much as 49.5 million), although the sales figure was only £1.2 billion, presumably reflecting the higher volume of luxury stores and higher transaction values at the London site.

It all added up to 75 million customer visits in 2017 and sales of £2.21 billion, compared to 2016’s 75 million visits and sales of £2.2 billion.

The company also said that it’s progressing with its construction projects with the giant Westfield London extension due to open this year and more than $6 billion of new developments in the pipeline, including its Croydon, Silicon Valley and Milan malls. 

Westfield Milan will be anchored by a Galeries Lafayette department store, with the firm saying pre-leasing is “progressing well and works have commenced on necessary highway infrastructure. We expect to be in a position for the project to commence later in 2018.”