With the somewhat slow and tentative arrival of Spring have come the by now regular comments blaming the weather for the struggles of High Street retailers.
But there are signs that the High Street might not be dead quite yet and that actually the weather is only a small part of the picture.
Research from analysts Kantar recently has revealed that 70% of us still like to try a product before we buy despite the boom in online shopping and that even with the rise of online shopping 90% of retail spending last year had taken place in actual shops and stores.
While trading conditions are difficult in the continuing economic crisis it may be that what is going on is actually a restructuring process between online, out of town malls and the High Street.
Recently Tesco has cancelled some plans to build larger retail outlets but in common with other large supermarkets continues to develop smaller drop-in stores both in town centres and suburban local shopping areas. Some formerly online only stores are also moving into physical stores in a process called “showrooming”. They include the Kingfisher-owned Screwfix, furniture store Oak Furniture Land and SimplyBe, owned by online fashion group JD Williams.
Small independents are also said to have a place on the High Street but as a specialist in turnaround and restructuring I would want to look at their business plans, costs and potential cash flow before recommending that they go ahead.
What would help most of all, however, would be for the Government to finally get the point that Business Rates, last revised at the height of the pre-crisis boom and now at an artificially high rate, which increased again in April, are no longer either justifiable or affordable for SMEs like the independent retailers.
According to Graham Ruddick of the Daily Telegraph, even the Policy Exchange, which is said to have close ties to senior Conservatives, is recommending freezing business rates for two years until they can be thoroughly reviewed. http://tinyurl.com/pxm2c2y
In our view a review and revision downward is urgent. Freezing them will only allow the Government to avoid having to consider revaluations and reductions in the hubristic hope that growth will return to pre credit-crunch “normal”.
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