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The start of 2018 has been a rocky one for retail.
• Restaurant insolvencies increased by 20% in 2017 with 984 entering administration, up from 825 in the previous year, according to accounting and advisory network Moore Stephens, who also said the last 10 years have seen an “unprecedented” level of openings creating an “over restauranted” market
• January saw a raft of closures among both casual dining and independent restaurants, including a CVA of Jamie’s Italian and Byron and the administration and subsequent closure of Square Pie
• The latest figures from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker show Britain’s managed-pub and restaurant chains saw collective like-for-like sales 0.6% ahead in January despite widespread doom and gloom
• Similarly, nearly a fifth (19%) of clothing retailers in the UK are showing “early warning signs” that they are at risk of going insolvent, according to Moore Stephens. Out of 35,078 fashion retailers, 6,580 were found to show early signs of financial distress, such as a large fall in revenue or poor payment history
• According to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel, total physical entertainment sales dropped 8.8% in the 12 weeks to January 14, with video dragging down the average with a 21% drop. Physical music sales also saw a decline of 5.8% but the resurgence of vinyl sales helped offset the decline - now accounting for 10% of physical music sales
• Sales across UK retailing have been largely flat in January, the latest ONS figures show
• Ecommerce saw a slowing in growth from 19.1% this time last year to 9%, accounting for 16.5% of all retail sales, down from 18% in December
• According to the annual ‘Shopper Stock Take’ report from Shoppercentric, shoppers are adjusting their buying habits – over a quarter (26%) of UK shoppers report having noticed prices increasing a lot, while 56% say they have seen small spikes. Consumers primarily put these increases down to the state of the economy (54%) and Brexit (50%), although the exchange rate, cost of ingredients and ‘greedy’ companies are also blamed by a fair proportion of shoppers
What remains to be seen is how the rest of the year pans out – FSP and SnapShop are on hand to keep you up-to-date and provide assistance to you and your centres.
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