London Borough of Croydon - Economy

Economy

The main employment sectors of the Borough is retail and enterprise which is mainly based in Central Croydon. Major employers are well-known companies, who hold stores or offices in the town. Purley Way is a major employer of people, looking for jobs as sales assistants, sales consultants and store managerial jobs. IKEA Croydon, when it was built in 1992, brought many non-skilled jobs to Croydon. The store, which is a total size of 23,000 m2, took over the former site of Croydon Power station, which had led to the unemployment of many skilled workers. In May 2006, the extension of the IKEA made it the fifth biggest employer in Croydon, and includes the extension of the showroom, market hall and self-serve areas. Other big employers around Purley include the large Tesco Extra store in the town centre, along with other stores in Purley Way including Sainsbury's, B&Q, Comet, Vue and Toys "R" Us. Croydon town centre is also a major retail centre, and home to many high street and department stores as well as designer boutiques. The main town centre shopping areas are on the North End precinct, in the Whitgift Centre, Centrale and St George's Walk. Department stores in Croydon town centre include House of Fraser, Marks and Spencer, Allders, Debenhams and T.K. Maxx. Croydon's main market is Surrey Street Market, which has a royal charter dating back to 1276. Shopping areas outside the city centre include the Valley Park retail complex, Croydon Colonnades, Croydon Fiveways, and the Waddon Goods Park.

In research from 2010 on retail footprint, Croydon came out as 29th in terms of retail expenditure at £770 million. This puts it 6th in the Greater London area, falling behind Kingston upon Thames and Westfield London. In 2005, Croydon came 21st, second in London behind the West End, with £909 million, whilst Kingston was 24th with £864 million. In a 2004 survey on the top retail destinations, Croydon was 27th.

In 2007, Croydon leapt up the annual business growth league table, with a 14% rise in new firms trading in the borough after 125 new companies started up, increasing the number from 900 to 1,025, enabling the town, which has also won the Enterprising Britain Award and "the most enterprising borough in London" award, to jump from 31 to 14 in the table.

Tramlink created many jobs when it opened in 2000, not only drivers but engineers as well. Many of the people involved came from Croydon, which was the original hub of the system. Retail stores inside both Centrale and the Whitgift Centre as well as on North End employee people regularly and create many jobs, especially at Christmas. As well as the new building of Park Place, which will create yet more jobs, so will the regeneration of Croydon, called Croydon Vision 2020, highlighted in the Croydon Expo which includes the Croydon Gateway, Wellesley Square, Central One plus much more.

Croydon is a major office area in the south east of England, being the largest outside of central London. Many powerful companies based in Europe and worldwide have European or British headquarters in the town. American International Group (AIG) have offices in No.1 Croydon, formerly the NLA Tower, shared with Liberata, Pegasus and the Institute of Public Finance. AIG is the sixth-largest company in the world according to the 2007 Forbes Global 2000 list. The Swiss company Nestlé has its UK headquarters in the Nestlé Tower, on the site of the formerly proposed Park Place shopping centre. Real Digital International has developed a purpose built 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2) factory on Purley Way equipped with "the most sophisticated production equipment and technical solutions". ntl:Telewest, now Virgin Media, have offices at Communications House, from the Telewest side when it was known as Croydon Cable. The Home Office UK Border Agency has its headquarters in Lunar House in Central Croydon. In 1981, Superdrug opened a 11,148 m2 (120,000 ft2) distribution centre and office complex at Beddington Lane. The head office of international engineering and management consultant Mott MacDonald is located in Mott MacDonald House on Sydenham Road, one of four offices they occupy in the town centre. BT has large offices in Prospect East in Central Croydon. The Royal Bank of Scotland also has large offices in Purley, south of Croydon. Direct Line also has an office opposite Taberner House. Other companies with offices in Croydon include Lloyds TSB, Merrill Lynch and Balfour Beatty. Ann Summers used to have its headquarters in the borough but has moved to the Wapses Lodge Roundabout in Tandridge.