 The city will see several new retail developments |
Derby city centre has suffered a summer slump in trade. The city centre management team have blamed the long periods of hot weather and the rise in cheap flights for taking people away.
July and August saw a much lower footfall of customers than in previous summers, they said.
The comments come in the wake of Gap announcing it is to close its city centre store because it was not profitable.
Low numbers
The Gap store in Albion Street had only been open three years but it is to close its doors at the end of September.
But the situation is not as bad as it seems, the team insist, with the region doing better than the rest of the country.
Mike Matthews, chairman of Derby City Centre management team, said: "Nationally footfall figure shave been flat across all the towns and cities.
"In the East Midlands it was up 5% and in Derby it was up 2%, so we are ahead of the trend nationally."
Better prospects
He added: "I think the coming of the Eagle Centre in the next two or three years, the massive expansion which is planned will undoubtedly herald the coming of several big stores.
"And Gap, I forecast will be back."
He felt the prospects for a far more successful autumn were very good.
He said: "It's is not surprising things were hard in the summer, everybody seems to have been in holiday in August, it has never been so easy to park in the city."
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