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There were two reported administrations in April:
1. Paul Simon fell into administration after the recent flooding hit footfall and sales at its stores. Deloitte was appointed as administrator, and announced that 17 loss-making stores would close before the end of April.
2. Sit-up TV fell into administration following a significant drop in sales despite a recent approval of a Company Voluntary Arrangement with creditors. KPMG was appointed as administrator.
Following the collapse of Albemarle & Bond in March, it was announced that 128 stores had been bought out of administration by an investment group led by Promethean Investments.
Footfall in March was up 1.8% year-on-year according to Springboard/BRC data, with high streets recording a 2.6% increase, out-of-town locations up 3% and shopping centres recording a 0.5% decline. This footfall decline in shopping centres has not deterred investment, with research by DTZ revealing that UK shopping centre investment transactions totalled approximately £1.3bn – comprising 13 shopping centres – during the first quarter of 2014.
Whilst footfall was up, March’s retail sales were down 1.7% on a LFL basis due to the late timing of Easter, with total sales declining 0.3%, according to the BRC KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.
UK online sales were up 7.1% in March YoY according to ONS and up 1.4% when compared to February. With research by Planet Retail revealing that the number of UK shoppers using click & collect is set to more than double from 35% to 76% by 2017, e-commerce grows ever stronger.
In April it was announced that the Healthy High Streets campaign - a new coalition of government, retailers and business leaders - aims to create 3,000 new jobs on UK high streets, boost footfall and reduce vacancy rates. The campaign will initially focus on 100 towns and will build on the review carried out by Mary Portas.
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