Derry's Foyleside reports '˜influx of cross border trade'

Fergal Rafferty, Centre Manager Foyleside, said: “Currency fluctuations are nothing new to shoppers in this region. There has always been a large flow of cross-border traffic as a large segment of our shopping catchment is based in Donegal and the North West region. It has been a number of years since we had a parity situation with sterling and euro, back in 2005. This of course means that we have large price variations.”

Mr Rafferty said following the referendum on Brexit “footfall figures from the Republic have increased by 20 per cent in the past three months in Foyleside, and many retailers have reported up to 50 per cent more euro transactions versus last year”.

“This trend looks set to continue throughout the busy Christmas period,” he said. “Some retailers in the centre responded to the shift by pricing close to pound for euro deals, so this is a win-win scenario for the euro consumer. “

Mr Rafferty said it’s “been a number of years since sterling has been this weak and retailers in the Republic have had the advantage for a number of years of Northern shoppers making the trip over the border”.

Mr. Rafferty added: “This tends to be cyclical and certainly with the advantage now in the North, we anticipate an extremely busy Christmas in Foyleside, with late night shopping and accessible car parking facilities.”