LizRenshaw

An interesting discussion has occurred between Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Today programme; they were discussing the Retail industry and the unfortunate increase in the number of insolvencies this particular sector has been experiencing since the recession.

David Chubb, one of the authors of the report, says the retail industry "stands out as the one sector to have moved the opposite way to everyone else".

You would have presumed the construction, hospitality and leisure industries would have been affected the most but it is in fact the retail sector, which has increased by 10%.

The smaller fashion retailers are particularly suffering due to a decrease in consumer spending.  People presume online retailers are making it harder for high street stores but this isn’t the case, as most companies embrace the ecommerce side to retail, as this provides them with additional marketing coverage for their business.  Increasing rent charges is a key factor to businesses insolvency issues but most of the landlords are in debt themselves, due to purchasing these properties in the first place. A compromise must be made at some stage as this cannot carry on.

Stephen Robertson, Director-General of the British Retail Consortium, warns that if people are "stopping shopping" and creating new shops, other sectors will be hit.

Approx. 3 million people are employed within the Retail sector which makes it the single biggest employer in the UK.  Not many people realise what a huge impact this sector has on the logistics/transport, construction and import/export industries and we should be very proud that we are very good at running retail on a global level as well as domestic.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/puffbox/hyperpuff/programmes/today/election/9741538.stm