The Festive season is bold and bright
Published: 05/12/2023
As it heads into the all-important festive period, Victoria Place has been able to report strong visitor growth so far in 2023. Recent data shows year-on-year growth in footfall, car park visitors and spend, bringing a little extra sparkle to Woking town centre this year and enhancing the all-important Christmas ambience.
Victoria Place, which is home to 150 brands, is so much more than just a shopping centre. The Marches offering 429 high quality apartments are now almost fully let. Italia Conti brings 600 students daily into the town and the Gym Group and Woking Superbowl provide excellent leisure opportunities. Alongside the wide-ranging eateries, the town centre really does offer something for everyone.
Awareness of the new offer has steadily increased and Victoria Place has reported average weekly footfall of over 157,000 a week, totalling over 6 million visitors in the year so far. Spend is also back to pre-Covid levels with an increase year-on-year of nearly 10% since 2022. Footfall is showing an 8.5% growth in the same period, and this is supported by growing car parking figures.
The growing popularity of Victoria Place is also evident with over seven new brands taking space in the last few months alone, including Søstrene Grene. Doors opened on 20th October in Henry Plaza. A fanfare launch event saw crowds of shoppers keen to explore the creative yet affordable Scandinavian homewares on offer. This adds to the existing home and gifting offer at nearby Lark, which has also proved to be a popular draw for local shoppers.
If that’s not enough, national coffee brand Black Sheep is set to open its doors this December at the centre providing a perfect pitstop for Christmas shoppers. The British brand, which has over 60 stores nationwide, will bring its specialty robusta coffee flavours and light bites to Henry Plaza on 9th December, just in time for the Christmas rush, what is known as the golden quarter for retailers across the globe.
Fastheal Pharmacy & Clinic are soon to open in a key spot in Mercia Walk and further openings are already in the pipeline and will be announced over the coming months.
Seymours have upsized and are relocating to a new office on Commercial Way. Works are well underway and the new premises will open in the New Year.