West End Set for £8.6bn Turnover, Marketing Plan Now Live & Our Sustainability Pledge

Jace Tyrrell

Chief Executive

We are almost two months into 2022 and this year is already looking up. Restrictions have been removed, colleagues are flocking back to the office, our annual plans have been finalised and our great recovery year is fully underway.

Our latest West End Retail Turnover Forecast for 2022-2031 was launched last week and points to a robust recovery but to fully thrive in the future we need all levels of Government to back our District and the Capital.

Working with Colliers Retail Strategy & Analytics team, we have applied a data-driven approach to understanding current performance trends across our District to provide you, our members and partners, with a forward-looking view of retail & leisure sales performance and the evolution of sales trends over the next 10 years across multiple economic scenarios.

This year, the report is forecasting that West End retail turnover will reach £8.6 billion. This represents an astonishing 73% growth on 2021 levels (£4.9 billion) and puts us on track to hit the £10 billion sales target by 2024, surpassing our original 2025 forecast.

The report was launched exclusively in The Times, with wider coverage in the Evening StandardThe TelegraphCity AMRetail GazetteDrapersEstates Gazette and The Retail Bulletin.

This truly is a reflection of our District’s resilience, and we hope it will instil confidence in the future of London’s West End as the most diverse, sustainable, and inspiring place to visit and do businessThe Board, led by our Chairman Sir Peter Rogers and the full team at New West End Company look forward to working with you and your colleagues as we strive toward this epic recovery, welcoming back our customers, businesses and investment to our District. Click here to access the report.

While domestic spend is looking likely to recover swiftly, we are continuing to call on the Government to do more to encourage international visitors to return to the UK as soon as possible to enhance recovery in a sustainable way. Led by London First, we have launched a new Coalition for International Travel, designed to showcase the importance of international travel from a demand-side perspective, making the case for London as an international hub and leader in the future of sustainable travel. Last month we wrote to the Prime Minister outlining both short and long term measures needed to realise our ambitions for an economically strong, net zero, global LondonClick here to read the full letter.

In the coming weeks we will be putting our 2022-23 plans into action across all our services, and we look forward to delivering them with you and for you as we continue to welcome back our colleagues and customers throughout this vital year of recovery.

Read on for some further key updates from the New West End Company team.