Sheffield city centre shows relative resilience in challenging February trading climate
Despite a difficult national trading environment in February, new data from the Sheffield BID Barometer shows the city centre demonstrating relative resilience, outperforming several comparable core cities.
According to the latest Beauclair insights, monthly sales in Sheffield were £16.5m, a year‑on‑year decline of –5.7%, driven primarily by a –6.3% drop in customer numbers. This reflects the impact of prolonged heavy rainfall affecting towns and cities across the UK. In contrast, spend per customer remained stable, rising +0.7%, with strong performances in Grocery (+4.9%), Health & Beauty (+3.4%), Transport (+6.9%) and Entertainment (+3.8%).
Sheffield’s performance compared favourably with other major cities, including Leeds (–8.2%) and Nottingham (–7.6%), highlighting the city centre’s competitive position within the region.
The Barometer also shows continuing signs of strengthening local loyalty, with the Sheffield City Council catchment increasing its year‑to‑date contribution to city centre sales by +1.1 percentage points.
Diane Jarvis, Chief Executive Officer:
"February was a tough month nationally, and Sheffield felt the impact of prolonged wet weather on city centre activity. Even so, our city demonstrated encouraging relative resilience, with spending per customer holding steady and key everyday sectors continuing to perform well."The strong attendance for Sheffield’s Lunar Chinese New Year celebrations later in the month brought welcome vibrancy into the city centre and helped support local businesses during an otherwise challenging trading period.
"As we move into spring, our focus is on building on this foundation - converting steadier spend into renewed activity as conditions improve and more people return to the city centre.”
