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No administrations have been recorded on SnapShop since our last update.
Brantano, which was placed into administration in early January, was acquired by its former owner Alteri Investors in mid-February. Some 58 stores and concessions were not included in the Alteri acquisition. It will be interesting to see what happens with this retailer in the future, as it seeks to become more of a multichannel player with a slimmed down store portfolio.
The high street doesn’t seem to have been affected by the so-called ‘January Blues’ this year; indeed UK retail sales surged the most in more than two years in January, boosted by demand for clothing and computers. Pub and restaurant groups have continued their strong growth seen last year, with collective like-for-like sales in January up 1.9% on the same month last year, according to latest figures from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker.
A rather notable trend that emerged from 2015 was the soaring sale of gift cards. Figures from the Gift Voucher Shop, the company behind the One4all Post Office Gift Card, revealed a 35% increase in sales, online sales via One4allgiftcard.co.uk saw a 60% increase compared to 2014, and gift card orders for rewards and incentives via the corporate division, One4all Rewards, soared by 47% on the previous year.
According to the data, fashion retailers saw the largest value of One4all Gift Card redemptions during the 2015 Christmas period and overtook general merchandise stores which were number one in 2014.
FSP will be watching with interest as new trends emerge in 2016. Our understanding of retail helps our clients make informed investment, development and asset management decisions.
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