Big cities in top ten for retailing 'resilience'

SCOTLAND'S three main cities have some of the best growth prospects and are among the "dominant" retail centres in the UK, a study has claimed.

The city centres of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen were all listed in the top ten British locations most resilient to pressures in the economy and declining high street sales.

New research published by one of the UK's leading retail data agencies, CACI, looked at the centres that are the most reliant on the "squeezed-middle" shoppers, who have felt increasingly nervous about their financial prospects since last year's general election.

Edinburgh was listed as the sixth most resilient, with Glasgow coming in at eight and Aberdeen ninth. At the top of the resilience list was the London shopping area of King's Road, with other parts of the city occupying second, third, fourth and fifth places.

Bexleyheath in south London was named as the most "squeezed-middle retail centre", with Southport, Blackpool and Wigan in north-west England and Maidstone in Kent following behind in the study, which analysed middle-income shoppers.

Paul Langston, who helped write the study, said that cities such as Edinburgh were "faring better" than most parts of the UK during the financial squeeze. He said: "Three groups epitomise Middle Britain. They are a mix of white-collar and skilled manual workers who straddle the middle-income spectrum.

"These groups live throughout Britain but, where they are found in particular concentrations, the retail centres they use will continue to feel the squeeze; they are the retail centres most at risk from shoppers who continue to watch the pennies.

"We are also seeing stronger retail performance and prospects in Britain's dominant retail centres, which have catchments with a more affluent customer profile. While consumer confidence appears to be weakening among some of the more affluent demographic groups, their willingness to spend on quality products in quality retailers, which tend to locate in the higher quality retail locations, is producing a virtuous circle for the top centres.

"Retail centres which serve these shoppers, such as King's Road and Covent Garden, as well as Edinburgh, Brighton and Glasgow, generally seem to have the best growth prospects."