Swindon’s Designer Outlet shopping centre massively outperformed the UK retail market with a 16% year-on-year sales increase during the all-important Christmas period, figures from owner McArthurGlen show.
Trading between November 6 and December 28 in the 90-unit centre on a like-for-like basis – which excludes new retail space – climbed by 13%. 
The data is in marked contrast to the pre-Christmas retail scene in high streets across the country.
According to the British Retail Consortium, Britain’s retailers suffered their toughest Christmas since the recession took hold in 2008 with December sales dropping by 0.4% on a year earlier in like-for-like terms.
Footfall at the Designer Outlet centre at Churchward rose by 18%. McArthurGlen said the opening of part of its latest expansion phase, the Long Shop, had helped bring in more shoppers.
McArthurGlen said the success of Black Friday – November 28, when many retailers slashed prices to kick-start their Christmas selling period – had not dampened post-Christmas spending by its visitors.
It had a record-breaking Boxing Day, when turnover in its stores reached the highest for a single day during the entire festive period.
Like-for-life footfall on Boxing Day and December 27 combined soared by 23% with sales up 10% on the same two days in 2013.
Sales on New Year’s Day were up 21% against January 1, 2014, an increase of 14% on a like-for-like basis. New Year’s Day footfall rose by 18%.
Product categories with the strongest sales increases were beauty, up 26%, leisure (13%), and lingerie (12%).
Designer Outlet centre manager Tina Cumpstey said the centre’s “unbeatable savings” and recent regeneration, including the opening of the Long Shop, offered shoppers a distinctive shopping experience that they could not find elsewhere.
The centre opened in 1997 in historic derelict workshops on part of the site of Swindon's former railway works. It has since been expanded several times – the latest is the £35m Long Shop extension, the result of the refurbishment of a Grade II listed building on the site.
The extension, which is not yet fully-opened, has attracted a number of new retail brands to the site such as Coast and relocated existing occupers such as Next and Marks & Spencer. It has also expanded the centre's food offering with national chains such as Giraffe and Soho Coffee Co.
It is adding 50,000 sq ft (4,700 sq m) of new retail space to centre, taking the total to 250,000 sq ft (23,000 sq m), and creating around 350 jobs, increasing the workforce to 1,100.
