Mailbox sees strong growth, shrugs off Birmingham city centre decline

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 17, 2018

Birmingham's mailbox shopping mall saw sales and footfall surging during the second half of 2017 as a number of new openings helped add to its overall appeal.

The retail and leisure complex, which is sited in Birmingham city centre, saw sales up by a healthy 15% year-on-year in H2.  And visitor traffic also rose 11% to bring the total number of people visiting the centre to almost six million for the year. It’s significant that the sales figure exceeded the footfall rise as this means that those who do turn up are spending more.

Those rises came despite the weak overall UK retail environment that has seen footfall generally dropping and particularly to shopping centres. In fact, Birmingham city centre as a whole suffered a 5% footfall drop in the period.
The units at the mailbox are now 95% let and on level one, where its new 20,000 sq ft home furnishings offer opened in October last year, footfall rose 40% overall and 59% during retail trading hours.

Melanie Taylor, head of leasing for co-owner Milligan (Brockton Capital is the other co-owner), said: "2017 was a pivotal year for Mailbox, with the final steps of our vision coming to fruition. We have reshaped the retail mix to provide even greater choice and compelling reasons to visit, which has had a significant positive impact on both sales and footfall.”