Pandemic
This coverage examines the impact of pandemics on the UK retail industry, focusing on operational disruption, financial challenges, consumer behaviour shifts, and recovery strategies. Reporting highlights store closures, safety measures, supply chain pressures, leadership decisions, and lessons learned to enhance resilience. Tailored for executives and managers, it provides insights to navigate crisis situations and strengthen preparedness.
-
Sep- 2021 -8 SeptemberSport & Leisure
Supply chain disruption hits Halfords’ bike sales
Halfords has announced that global supply chain disruptions have hit its cycling business in recent weeks, despite cycling sales rising 9.9% in the 20-week period ended 20 August 2021. The group experienced “considerable capacity constraints” in light of ongoing disruptions, leading to low availability of bikes throughout the period. Availability…
Read More » -
7 SeptemberSupermarkets
Tesco calls for apprenticeship reform
A reform to the Apprenticeship Levy could lead to an additional 8,000 new apprenticeships across the retail sector every year, Tesco has said, with 500 apprenticeships created at Tesco alone. A new report for the group, produced by Public First, outlines the supermarket’s contribution at a national level and in…
Read More » -
6 SeptemberSupply Chain
Labour shortages could continue for two-years, CBI warns
Labour supply problems could last for up to two years and will not be solved by the end of the Job Retention Scheme, the CBI’s director-general, Toby Danker has warned. The warning comes as the CBI’s director-general has set out priorities for both business and government to guard against labour…
Read More » -
6 SeptemberHigh Street
Nearly 50 high-street stores closed a day in H1, study finds
Over 8,700 chain stores have disappeared from UK retail locations in the first six months of 2021, equating to over 47 stores a day, according to the latest PwC research compiled by the Local Data Company (LDC). The research showed that in total, 3,488 shops opened compared with 8,739 closures,…
Read More » -
3 SeptemberHigh Street
August footfall still 18% below pre-pandemic levels, says BRC
Total UK footfall four the four week period ended 28 August 2021 remained 18% below its pre-pandemic August 2019 level. However, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Sensormatic IQ data, the four week period represented a 10% climb from July 2021. In turn, August’s figures sat above the…
Read More » -
2 SeptemberCoronavirus
Staycations boost footfall recovery in August
Staycations helped footfall improve in August by around a quarter from -24.2% in July to -18.6% in August, with the gap from the 2019 footfall level reducing to less than -20% for the first time since the start of the pandemic. According to the latest data from Springboard, Footfall declined…
Read More » -
2 SeptemberHealth & Beauty
Boots to launch 30 high street beauty halls
Boots has announced the launch of 30 new beauty halls across its UK sites as the group aims to expand its high street beauty offering. The latest additions are set to be introduced as smaller versions of the current 60 Boots beauty halls across its flagship shops such as Covent…
Read More » -
1 SeptemberAdvice
Accelerating retail transformation to drive growth
Retailers have faced a tough year. Stay-at-home orders and the resulting shift to online saw buyer behaviour altered. Consumers across the globe flocked online in numbers not forecast for a decade. McKinsey’s UK Consumer Sentiment research highlighted that 63 per cent of consumers tried new shopping behaviours in the past year,…
Read More » -
1 SeptemberHigh Street
Bank holiday sees footfall surge 8.2%
Footfall during the bank holiday week was up 14.2% from 2020 according to the latest data from Springboard. Footfall in the UK rose by 4.9% over the last week, with a peak of 8.2% during the bank holiday weekend as shoppers made the most of the long weekend ahead of…
Read More » -
1 SeptemberHigh Street
WH Smith anticipates lower profitability for 2022
WH Smith has anticipated that the levels of profitability for the year ending August 2022 will be at the lower end of market expectations as a result of the ongoing effects of Covid-19. Prior to its preliminary results for the year ending 31 August 2021, the retailer revealed that total…
Read More »
