Tue, 7th October 2008

Cabot Circus welcomes its millionth customer on day 11

Cabot Circus has attracted more than one million consumers since it launched on September 25th.

The new £500 million scheme developed by the Bristol Alliance, a partnership between Hammerson and Land Securities, attracted more than 120,000 consumers on its first day and close to half a million by the end of its first trading weekend.

Despite the challenging economic climate, the 1 million sq ft scheme has delivered strong footfall figures and, more impressively, healthy trading figures.

The new concept House of Fraser store has performed well with a total of 19,612 transactions and 26,333 units sold since it opened its doors on the 25 September.

Quakers Friars, the premium fashion and restaurant quarter is anchored by Harvey Nichols together with brands including CRUISE, Reiss and Kurt Geiger. With 95% of the fashion retailers in Quakers Friars making their debut in the city, the new brands are proving popular.

The flagship Harvey Nichols, its first store in the South West has exceeded budget expectations and is continuing to trade on a high. On the second day of trading there had to be a queuing system implemented outside the store to deal with the overwhelming number of customers.

Richard Belt, Cabot Circus Centre Director said: "Footfall has been consistently high since the launch and the fact that shoppers are spending in stores and not just browsing highlights the strength of the brands within the scheme. To achieve over 1 million consumers in less than two weeks is tremendous given the current economic environment."

Robert Young, Development Director for CRUISE added: "Cabot Circus is an excellent development. We are particularly pleased with our position in Quakers Friars and as a new brand in Bristol we've had a great response to the store so far. We set ourselves aggressive targets for the launch weekend which were exceeded, and we have continued to trade up this week."