Lowry outlet buoyant despite high street gloom

SHOPPERS who were out to bag a bargain at Christmas helped Salford’s Lowry Outlet Mall achieve record sales for the festive period.

The discount shopping centre defied the credit crunch with like-for-like sales for last two weeks of December up 21%, while footfall was up by 27% with more than 200,000 visitors to the mall during the period.

The year ended with footfall up by 6% on 2007.

Some of the Lowry Outlet Mall retailers performed particularly well with Marks & Spencer being crowned the best performing outlet store in the UK, and Molton Brown experienced a record 50% hike in sales on 2007.

Robert Hallworth, centre manager at Lowry Outlet Mall, says: “We had an excellent Christmas and New Year trading season and saw record numbers of visitors to the Lowry Outlet Mall, bucking the national trend.

“However there is no doubt that all customers bought more carefully with ‘value’ the watchword. All retailers are therefore looking to sharpen their performance to make sure every part of the business can meet changing customer needs as efficiently as possible.

“We have high expectations for the remainder of January and look forward to high footfall and sales in 2009 as more and more consumers turn to outlet shopping.”

However it hasn’t all been good news at the outlet after it emerged that the Zavvi store will close there after the group fell into administration.