Sales boom in West End as weak pound lures tourists

The West End is in the grip of an extraordinary summer spending boom that has defied predictions of a credit-crunch slump.

Retail sales last month in central London were 8.7 per cent higher last month than in June last year as bargain-hunting European tourists lured by the weak pound "inundated" the capital, according to official figures out today.

Upmarket stores seem to have benefitted most with Selfridges ending its summer sale two weeks early and Fortnum & Mason reporting a 53 per cent increase in takings last month.

Some retail experts said the increase in petrol prices has also helped the West End, where only four per cent of shoppers travel by car.

Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, which compiled the figures, 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 rising costs of driving to shopping centres further afield have pushed up shopper numbers and spending."

Jace Tyrrell, spokesman for the New West End Company, which represents shops on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, said: "It appears shoppers are turning their back on driving to out-oftownshopping centres, instead hopping on public transport to make the most of the West End's summer sales."

The NWEC claims that the number of shoppers in the West End is up 6.6 per cent on last year compared with a 1 per cent fall in footfall in other major cities.

Selfridges chief executive Paul Kelly said virtually all the store's discounted stock was sold and new season ranges were now being launched. He added: "We're ahead of last year."

Beverley Aspinall, managing director of Fortnum & Mason, said the rocketing sales at the Piccadilly institution were " extraordinary given what's going on on the High Street". She said food and fashion had been selling very strongly and the store had been "inundated with Europeans - lots of Italians, French and Germans".

Sales at John Lewis's flagship store on Oxford Street are up 11.2 per cent so far this year. Julia Blake, spokeswoman for John Lewis Oxford Street, said: "We have seen fantastic increases on fashion and beauty."