Retail up but Valletta suffers haemorrhage

Clothing and footwear shopping outlets in Valletta reported a significant drop in turnover in the past two years, according to data published yesterday. Although the data indicates that overall retail in these sectors improved slightly over the same period by 0.5 per cent, business is clearly moving out of the capital towards other shopping areas, particularly Sliema and Birkirkara. Conducted by Deloitte and EMCS with the collaboration of Bank of Valletta, the first Malta Retail Review compared commercial information received from 113 retail outlets in the footwear and fashion sectors. Although the number of shops revealing their data is still low compared to the amount of shops and turnover in these two retail areas, the data still points towards significant shifts in business. Valletta emerges as the biggest loser in this survey. While businesses in the capital reported a significant 10.3 per cent decrease in turnover over the past two years, shop owners in Birkirkara increased their sales by 9.8 per cent, while those owning shops in Naxxar, San Ġwann, Attard and Iklin reported a turnover increase of 5.7 per cent. Sales also increased in Gozo (5.3 per cent), St Julian’s (2.8 per...