An Ipswich shopping centre enjoyed over half-a-million visitors who spent more than £25m during December.

Sailmakers Shopping Centre bucked all national trends during the festive period, increasing their December sales by 2% on last years figures.

More than 660,000 people visited the centre, enough to fill Portman Road stadium five times over, with Christmas week sales peaking at £6m.

Sailmakers Centre Manager Mike Sorhaindo said: “It’s been very positive and we’re hearing a lot of good things from retailers and late night shopping was very successful.

“That was particularly true of Christmas so week which was busy, even though Christmas Eve was a Monday.

“Fashion and beauty did very well with lots of customers heading out to Christmas parties and the food and drink retailers also did good business.

“The success of the centre is a continuing testament to the £4 million investment in Sailmakers and what it has meant to the town in terms of over 100 jobs created and a massive boost to the local economy.”

The numbers for the final quarter of the year state that a total of 1,528,369 people graced Sailmakers.

A huge four pr up on 2017 and 7.4 pr on the national figure.

The pattern continued after Christmas into the sales with footfall in the final week of December reaching more than 111,000, nearly five pr up on the same week last year.