After a rocky start, not helped by the onset of the recession, the shopping centre has confounded the doomsayers by welcoming 23m shoppers walking through its doors, 15% higher than forecast.
The centre has now let nearly all of its retail space, with flagship stores from House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Next and Waitrose.
It first customer magazine will launch in March next year with an initial circulation of 500,000.
The title, which has yet to be named, will be distributed around the centre and to affluent London postcodes, offering advertisers the chance to target ABC1 consumers.
Matt Chambers, brand director of House of Fraser, says: ‘The figures just released show how busy the centre is and with the demographic it attracts it is a premium shopping centre. The main challenge we have had is getting the right brands in store. Some areas have surprised us, such as young fashion but we have been flexible in our approach and added lines and brands.'
The magazine, published by Sunday publishing, will include a section dedicated to luxury brands form the Village - which houses luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, Miu Miu, Tiffany & Co, De Beers and Gucci. The content will focus around fashion, homeware and eating out.
The customer title will add to Westfield's existing marketing channels to consumers. The centre has a network of over 100 digital advertising screens and three large format screens, the biggest measuring 13m by 4.5m.
Outdoor media owner CBS manages the sales of the screens and has not been surprised to see that not only retail brands have taken space. Lee Cutter, head of retail sales at CBS, says: ‘Westfield offers a very strong media channel. A range of brands have taken advantage of that in categories other than retail. We've run campaigns with motoring, film and electronics brands.'
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