Results round-up: How UK shopping centres performed during the Golden Quarter
Although not immune from the challenges facing the retail industry, many UK shopping centres are celebrating a successful golden quarter after delivering increases in footfall and sales over the festive season, contributing to a positive performance in 2024.
Here's a look at the most recent trading updates from some of the UK's retail and leisure destinations, from Battersea Power Station and Liverpool ONE to Victoria Leeds, St James Quarter, and more.
Battersea Power Station
Festive sales at Battersea Power Station grew 13.4% in November and December as the riverside neighbourhood celebrated its best Christmas to date. It saw footfall rise 11% compared to the same period in 2023.
As part of this, fashion sales performed well in lead-up to Christmas, growing 11.7% on a like-for-like basis in November and December. Meanwhile, jewellery and accessories increased 13.3% and beauty transactions jumped 11.2%, compared to the same period in 2023.
A visit from His Majesty King Charles III on 12 December was immediately followed by Battersea Power Station's busiest week of the year for sales. Visitors also flocked to enjoy an array of festive activations, including a Wallace & Gromit projection on the front of the power station, Christmas markets, and an ice rink in partnership with Boots.
The trading update follows a successful year for Battersea Power Station, with its highest week for footfall being between 29 July and 4 August, as visitors made the most of summer activations. It also welcomed more than 19 new retail and leisure openings during 2024, including Marks & Spencer’s first-ever standalone clothing and beauty concept store.
Sam Cotton, Head of Leasing and Asset Management at Battersea Power Station Development Company, said: "The extremely strong Christmas trading period we enjoyed at the end of last year underlines Battersea Power Station’s increasingly established position as one of London’s must-visit shopping and leisure destinations. As we look to 2025, Battersea Power Station will continue to offer a unique blend of culture, community spirit and world-class shopping and leisure experiences, which will attract visitors from London and from further afield."
Liverpool ONE
Liverpool ONE, which was acquired by Landsec last month, recently reported its most successful festive shopping season since 2019, delivering a 28% increase in sales and 14% growth in footfall.
The run of success began with Black Friday week and continued throughout December. In addition, during the period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, Liverpool ONE reported a 26% increase in footfall as "significant" volumes of consumers continued to visit the destination.
Opened in 2008, Liverpool ONE offers a strong mix of retail, food and beverage, and leisure brands that attract footfall of 22 million people per year.
Its success in the golden quarter follows the evolution of Liverpool ONE in 2024, with 13 new brands opening in the last year, including Montirex, Tag Heuer and AllSaints, while Sephora, Uniqlo, Hobbs, Phase Eight and Whistles will be making their debuts in 2025.
Rob Deacon, Asset Management Director at Liverpool ONE, said: "Achieving our best Christmas in six years is a fantastic end to another successful year for LiverpoolONE. Driving our out-performance has been our commitment to providing best-in-class brands and experiences for our visitors, and that will continue in 2025 as we prepare to launch more new stores than at any point since Liverpool ONE opened in 2008."
Outlet Shopping at The O2
The O2 recorded its best-ever year for sales and footfall, welcoming a record number of people through its doors in 2024. It reported double-digit growth for retail, fuelled by a "stellar" Black Friday.
Outlet Shopping at The O2 finished the year 10% above last year’s sales, with standout trading periods including Black Friday weekend (29 November to 1 December) sitting in the destination’s top five sale days of the year, as well as the full week (25 November to 1 December) reporting a 16% sales uplift compared to 2023.
It comes after the retail and leisure destination welcomed over 31,000 sq ft of new brands in 2024, including All Good Things, Clarks, Bedeck, Castore, and Soletrader, alongside several renewals for existing tenants such as Le Creuset, Whittard, and Clarins.
Janine Constantin-Russell, Managing Director of the Entertainment District and Outlet Shopping of The O2, said: "We have consistently demonstrated just what a success story The O2 is, not only for tenants and operators, but visitors too. 2025 will bring even more opportunity to showcase how brilliant we are at surpassing those national benchmarks.
"We remain steadfast in delivering and investing in a one-of-a-kind destination that brings people together with an exciting and engaging offer, maintaining its relevance as consumer behaviours continue to shift."
Victoria Leeds
Redical’s Victoria Leeds is looking ahead to a promising 2025 after welcoming a 10.7% increase in December’s seasonal sales, as well as a 10.4% rise in annual retail sales compared to 2023.
Standout categories at the destination included jewellery with a 20% increase and health and beauty with a 15% increase.
Sales were enhanced by the destination's leasing activity throughout 2024, bringing 17 new brand openings, regears, renewals and refits, including debuts from Le Labo, Barbour, Caffé Concerto, Missoma and Cambridge Satchel.
Other performance highlights include a "stand-out" Black Friday week, with a footfall up 4.7% at Victoria Gate, bolstering a 20% uplift in total sales across the entire destination. Categories that enjoyed sales growth included clothing and accessories, which increased by 66% versus 2023, as well as menswear up 38%, jewellery up 33%, and leisure and services up 24%.
Rachel Bradburn, Leasing Director at Victoria Leeds, said: "2025 is looking an exciting year for Victoria Leeds as we continue to build on our strong momentum of 2024. Whilst we remain mindful of the economic landscape and industry challenges that lay ahead, our positive 2024 results reflect the strength of Victoria Leeds’ unmatched proposition, engaged customer base and elevated brand offering. Looking ahead, we’re focusing on welcoming more ‘firsts out of London’ as well as regional and city debuts for premium British, independent and international brands."
Centre:MK
Footfall at Centre:MK reached 21.4 million from 31 December 2023 to 28 December 2024, finishing with a rise of 1.5% year-on-year.
As part of this, the shopping centre in Milton Keynes welcomed over six million guests in the fourth quarter, with 21 December marking the busiest day of the year, exceeding Black Friday.
Celebrating a "successful" year of retail investment across 2024, Centre:MK welcomed various high-profile national and international retail brands, including Space NK, Mint Velvet, Castore, Goldsmiths, and Office. It also saw investment from existing and new F&B operators, including Bill’s, Chaiiwala and Starbucks.
Setting the pace for another positive year ahead, the first week of 2025 saw footfall increase 20% year-on-year. Looking ahead, this year will also see the city’s most popular events return to the destination, including Fashion Weekend, Handmade & Vintage Spring Extravaganza and The MK Job Show.
Kevin Duffy, Centre Director at Centre:MK, said: "From our impressive footfall figures to our consistent footfall-to-spend conversion rate of over 95%, Centre:MK's ability to continually outperform UK benchmarks for the last decade is testament to our reputation as the prime regional destination. Building on our successes of 2024, we’ll continue to apply our agile leasing strategy and active management style to create exciting opportunities for the right brands, ensuring our occupiers can capitalise on one of the largest and most affluent catchments in the UK."
St James Quarter
St James Quarter in Edinburgh achieved a "record-breaking" December, with footfall up 7.4% year-on-year in the final full week before Christmas, peaking on 21 December, when it increased by 30% compared to the same day in 2023.
Super Saturday footfall was up 20% on the same period in December 2023, and Black Friday footfall rose by 13% on the previous year, on one of the busiest weekends in St James Quarter’s history, with footfall exceeding 310,000.
St James Quarter, which opened in June 2021, was on track to reach its target of 20 million visitors by the end of 2024.
The large-scale development boasts an 80-strong retail offering, including brands like Kate Spade, ZARA, H&M, Hugo Boss, Aesop, Boots, H Beauty and Molton Brown, amongst others.
Anne Ledgerwood, Estate Director for St James Quarter, said: "We are celebrating an incredible December, which has bucked wider UK retail footfall trends thanks to our dynamic blend of fashion, beauty and hospitality, alongside our most spectacular Christmas programme to date, which captured the magic of the season with a well-crafted calendar of music, dance and interactivity."