Games blip alert as Shaftesbury booms

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Shaftesbury, which owns more than 500 shops, bars and restaurants across Chinatown, Carnaby Street and Covent Garden, is also expecting "short-term disruption to the usual patterns of life" during the Games as the capital's transport system comes
under strain.

Chief executive Brian Bickell stressed the Games would be a great shop window for London in the
long term but added: "If you look at every other Olympic city over the past 20 years or so they
have all had disappointing visitor numbers in the
year of the Olympics. People come to London
because of the cheap flights and hotels but the flights are getting expensive and hotels are getting outrageously expensive.

"Some people will say we'll give London a miss this year. We're not Knightsbridge or Kensington, it's more mid-market so its more sensitive to hotel costs."

But Bickell still has a long waiting list of retailers looking to open stores on Shaftesbury's patch and with more niche outlets looking to move into Carnaby and Seven Dials as lease expiries free up space. Shaftesbury will also overhaul two of its buildings in the summer to meet demand for bigger stores. The shares today eased 3.5p to 511.75p.