City moves up a notch in retail league tables (From Daily Echo)

City moves up a notch in retail league tables

1:59pm Tuesday 1st December 2009 in Hampshire Business By Peter Law, Feature Writer

SOUTHAMPTON has climbed one place in the league table for the best shopping destinations in the UK.

The opening of furniture megastore Ikea in February, pictured, helped the city rise to 14th on the latest retail table, published by Experian.

Southampton’s retailers were hit hard by the recession, with the number of vacant shops rising 67 per cent in the past year.

However, the city’s reputation as the retail capital of the south coast remains intact after it was ranked higher than both Portsmouth and Brighton.

Experian retail director Jonathan de Mello said: “It is evident from this year’s ranking that the larger centres have been the most recession-proof to date, but this has been at the expense of the smaller, mid-town retail destinations.

“It appears that shoppers are making less frequent trips overall and when they do go shopping they prefer to spend their money and time at the larger centres.”

New figures showed the number of people on the dole has dropped for the first time in two years, the average house price is increasing and the number of empty shops has also fallen.

The boost comes just a day after the Daily Echo reported there are signs that Southampton is starting to rebound from the recession.

Southampton city centre manager Ian McClurg-Welland said retailers were hoping for the best festive shopping season for two years.

London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool retain the top five spots while Cardiff was the biggest mover, climbing four places.

Mr de Mello said retailers that had survived the recession were the strongest and most versatile and there was now an opportunity for new names to enter the market.

The global information services company last night also predicted a bright future for Southampton.

By 2014, it forecasts the city will rise another place higher to 13th on its league table, leap-frogging Bristol. It also predicts the city will maintain this position until 2019 at least.

This depends on the success of Watermark WestQuay, which was postponed in February due to the recession.