Dundee’s Overgate shopping centre enjoyed a bumper festive season, defying a UK-wide slump in high street shopping.
Footfall over the five weeks leading to January 2, which includes Black Friday, rose 1.2% on the year.
But in the week immediately after Christmas, footfall was 20.9% up on the year.
In total, there were more than nine million visits to the Overgate between April 2016 and January.
The figures are a contrast to recently released data by footfall monitor firms Springboard and Ipsos which indicated the UK high street struggled with during the festive season.
The Overgate follow a number of high-profile retail openings last year including Schuh, Footasylum, Menkind, Smiggle and Little Thistle.
Other new openings included Frankie and Benny’s restaurant and AdoraBubble Tea.
Overgate gift cards generated sales of £985,000 across 29,355 cards. The average gift card transaction value was £34.
Centre manager Malcolm Angus said: “We are pleased to have recorded these notable successes throughout 2016 and the increase in footfall across the Christmas trading period is particularly encouraging.
“We pulled out the stops to ensure Christmas at Overgate was an exciting proposition, with this year’s Santa’s Grotto proving hugely popular.
“The response from our customers on the number of new retailers to have opened within the centre has been equally positive, and interesting collaborations and initiatives with local partners, such as the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail and the students from Dundee and Angus College.
“The opening of Frankie & Benny’s in time for the Christmas trading period, augmented by other strong food and beverage offerings such as Five Guys, Debenhams and the expanded Starbucks, as well as others, all added to Overgate’s appeal as an all-round enjoyable shopping experience with an excellent choice of brands.”
Famous high street names enjoyed mixed fortunes over the festive period.
Next’s trading figures were so disappointing they caused share prices to fall across the retail sector.
However, Marks & Spencer enjoyed its best festive period for six years.
Supermarkets such as Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s also benefited from a hike in Christmas spending.
