Record ticket sales and sky-high retail sales make Christmas 2019 a smashing success at The Piece Hall.
The Piece Hall is celebrating its most successful Christmas since its reopening in 2017, thanks to record ticket sales for the Christmas events programme and exceptional sales being reported by tenants.
Here at the only remaining former cloth hall in the UK we’ve hosted more than 40 events throughout the festive period including cabaret and comedy shows, family friendly shows and live music. Twenty per cent more tickets were sold than the previous Christmas and, this year, fifteen of our Christmas events were sold out – more than double the number of events that sold out last year, demonstrating that the Trust’s programme is clearly resonating with local and regional communities. As well as welcoming international performers, we’ve continued to support local organisations such as Elland Silver Band and Boomchikkaboom, developed new local partnerships with Brodstock and Leeds College of Music. We’ve also continued our collaboration with tenant Loafers on ‘Loafers Presents’, which is fast becoming an emerging event brand.
The independent retailers that are based here enjoyed a bumper Christmas of trading, with some retailers achieving year-on-year growth as high as 200 per cent. Bucking the national high street trend, customers flocked to The Piece Hall in thousands; attracted by the carefully curated range of independent businesses.
Aamir Yusuf owns the toy and game shop Totally Awesome, which had a tremendous sales period over Christmas, with year-on-year sales almost doubling. The shop’s most popular Christmas gift was a table-top game called Kluster, which was shipped from overseas and meant that Totally Awesome was the first UK retailer to stock it. Aamir ordered 150 units which sold out within days, and he has since ordered extra units for Halifax’s eager shoppers.
Our other retailers have enjoyed similar success. The Chocolate Box, which is owned and run by Jackie Rawnsley, saw a twenty per cent increase on last year’s sales, with its special Christmas chocolates proving to be the sweetest seller with some visitors choosing to buy their Christmas chocolates there again after enjoying them last year
It’s also been an exceptionally busy period for The Yorkshire Soap Company, with sales up 62% year on year. The well-respected Yorkshire brand, which sells luxury soaps and bath products, has seen an influx of customers from the surrounding Calderdale area such as Brighouse and Huddersfield.
“It has been a whole team effort to make Christmas 2019 such an enormous success,” says Nicky Chance-Thompson DL, chief executive of The Piece Hall Trust.
“We have worked tirelessly to put on an outstanding events programme which was this year enjoyed by over 221,600 people. Our hard working and committed tenants saw great results due to the high footfall levels we saw in November and December, and the great shopping and food and drink community we have built here is going from strength to strength with people coming in from all over the UK and the world.
“Despite only being open for a little over 2 years the numbers are an encouraging sign that The Piece Hall Trust’s long-term vision and investment is appealing to both locals and those from further afield. Using The Piece Hall as a catalyst for local growth was always planned to be a long-term endeavor, so we are grateful for those that continue to support our partners, independent retailers and restaurants as we learn and strive to deliver an even better experience. It’s now time to look forward to all that we have taking place in 2020, with prolific music gigs, high profile sporting events, food festivals, family fun days, sculpture and outdoor film screenings. I’m very proud of what we have achieved together.”