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With the CVAs of Beales and BHS approved last month, April saw Scottish independent Xile Clothing fall into administration and subsequently rescued by JD Sports-owned Tessuti.
Austin Reed Group – which underwent a CVA last year to shed stores and restructure its operations – was acquired by Alteri Investments, having appointed advisers to find a way forward for the struggling chain almost a year to the day it’s CVA was approved.
All is not doom and gloom on the high street though. Consumer confidence – although possibly starting to reveal Brexit fears – is still positive and the average house price continues to grow, reaching over £200,000.
A new initiative aimed at making UK high streets some of the most digitally enabled in the world has launched, starting with pilots in Cheltenham and Gloucester. The digital high street programme is led by Home Retail Group chief executive John Walden and supported by businesses including IBM, Boots UK, Google, Lloyds Banking Group and Facebook. Additional locations already carrying out limited digital initiatives elsewhere will be included in the project, with the aim of launching the high street digital hub nationally in spring 2017.
Online continues on its steady growth path, with Mintel research revealing that nearly half of all British grocery customers shop online, with over 11% never visiting brick and mortar stores. Not surprisingly, total online sales grew by 11% in March, with smartphone sales growing by 101%. Sales via tablets were up by only 6%, the IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index showed.
Interestingly, a survey of Co-operative Group shoppers has revealed that 65% of shoppers from a sample of 2,000 it interviewed thought they would only need a mobile phone to pay with by 2025. As it stands, two-thirds of all transactions at The Co-op stores are still made using cash, despite the Co-op being the first retailer to roll-out contactless payment points in 2014.
You can keep up with all the latest trends on SnapShop.
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