Retail Excellence Ireland has called on the Government to introduce a lower rate of VAT as it warned that the industry is facing mass closures, according to a report in the Irish Independent.

The post Retail Excellence Ireland calls for Vat cut and warns of mass business closures appeared first on Ireland's Forecourt & Convenience Retailer.

The group was hosting a gathering of 400 retailers in Co Kildare to be addressed by Minister Damien English.

Soaring energy costs topped  the agenda with many retailers receiving electricity and gas bills in recent weeks that are a multiple of what they were this time last year.

Duncan Graham, Managing Director of Retail Excellence, said the unprecedented nature of the energy bills being received by retailers posed a threat to thousands of livelihoods around the country.

“It is critically important that we see a major intervention from the Government in the forthcoming Budget to ensure businesses can keep the lights on this Christmas,” he said, adding that it needed to include a cap on energy costs as a priority.

“Our members don’t like uncertainty, and a cap on energy costs would ensure that retailers could at least plan for the coming months with the sure knowledge that they won’t be facing even more price hikes,” he said.

“If we don’t see an energy price cap, then we will certainly experience a poor trading season for the third Christmas in a row. Many of our members will not be able to sustain that pressure,” he concluded.

He also called for a reduction in the VAT rate and added that staffing was still a concern in the retail industry.

Mr Graham said retailers had seen their energy bills going up three-fold since the start of the year.

“They’re wondering if they’ll survive another winter. This is the third successive winter with disruption to the industry,” he said.

He said Retail Excellence had not seen business closures as yet but that they may not be far off.

“Retailers are wondering if they can fully open stores in the run up to Christmas. Normally, they would open at 7am and stay open until 8 or 9 at night. They are now saying they simply cannot operate those hours,” he said.

“Businesses that would normally look to offer seasonal employment are going ‘it’s that or paying the energy bill.’ It’s not far off a point where it’s unsustainable,” he explained.

Duncan Graham said retailers were already implementing the kind of measures being discussed by the Cabinet for public buildings, like turning off the lights when the outlet closes and turning down the heat.

He said towns were going to look a lot darker this Christmas with businesses turning off the lights at night and town centre bodies reconsidering the Christmas lighting displays this year.

The post Retail Excellence calls for ‘major intervention’ on energy costs for firms appeared first on Ireland's Forecourt & Convenience Retailer.

The measure was announced earlier this year by the Government as part of the Circular Economy Bill, which is aimed at reducing waste and influencing behaviour.

The post Government needs to rethink coffee cup levy: Retail Excellence appeared first on Ireland's Forecourt & Convenience Retailer.

We will all be glad to see the back of 2021. After a year once again dominated by Covid-19 mayhem, businesses have had to endure months of enforced closures, serious staffing issues, and a significant drop in footfall particularly in our cities, towns and villages.

This disruption has been made worse by a steep rise in the cost of shipping containers, rising inflation, severe weather events such as Storm Barra, and hauliers’ protests that have affected Dublin city in particular recently.

Retail operates side by side with the hospitality industry and restrictions imposed recently are having an added impact on footfall and on what people buy. Furthermore, the significant decrease in festive activity for the hospitality industry this Christmas has hit boutiques and fashion stores very hard.

Next year, it stands to reason that the cost of goods will rise across most retail sectors. Retailers have done everything they can to avoid passing on increases to consumers this Christmas, but it is inevitable that they will have to do so next year in order to pay the bills.

Cause for optimism in 2022

As we look to next year, however, there is cause for optimism if the right supports are put in place. Despite all the problems that this year has brought, the bounceback came in May and business was buoyant for most of the second half of the year. Suburban shopping centres and provincial towns and villages benefited the most from savings that had been building up during the periods of enforced lockdown.

The retail industry is now fully up and running and retailers need staff to meet the increased demand even as we find ourselves staring at an uncertain start to 2022 with the shadow of Omicron looming large.

Renewed focus on the customer experience

Once the Covid situation stabilises next year the

needs to be wound down quickly and we need to incentivise people to move to this vibrant and dynamic industry.

There are careers to be made in retail that are varied, interesting and rewarding and we need to work hard to attract talent. One of the legacies of the pandemic is a new, inexperienced retail workforce that need to develop new skills and with that will come opportunities for new ways of doing business. Of course there will be a renewed focus on the customer experience and the best retailers will be the ones who will offer the ‘wow factor’ in everything they do – be it online or in person.

It is clear that our cities have suffered the hardest Covid hit in recent months, with tourist numbers down significantly and shoppers preferring to stick to suburban shopping centres rather than travel to cities, towns and villages.

Retail Excellence has consistently called for initiatives from city councils and Government to get people back to our cities – not only to shop but also to live, work and socialise. We hope to see these calls answered in the year ahead.

Likewise, there are still many vacant commercial properties across the country that could and should be filled by new businesses. Property owners, retailers and local authorities need to work together proactively to attract businesses, fill these units and return our urban centres into places that people can be proud of and want to spend time in.

Irish retail operating at a world-class level

Despite operating during the worst trading environment in living memory, Irish retail has proven itself to be operating at a truly world-class level. We can boast visually stunning businesses like Brown Thomas and Arnotts, and outstanding service from stores like Fabiani in Longford, and Fervour and Hue in Cork.

We have businesses that are trying something different and appealing to more than just the local population like Frank’s Place in Wexford. There are also plenty of retailers that have that ‘wow’ factor like Windy Ridge Garden Centre in Dublin and the Retail Excellence Retailer of the Year 2021, Arboretum in Carlow. There are hidden gems of retail across the country ready to be explored.

Retailers have proven how adaptable they are

Retailers have proven time and again through the pandemic how adaptable they are and we know that Irish customers appreciate and desire their retail therapy. The future will be a blended approach of physical and digital retail; we will always want to shop, and we will shop with all our senses both in-store and online.

Retailers will continue to safeguard customers and staff regardless of what lies ahead, and we know that customers will continue to support Irish and buy local, even as the trend to online continues.

Now, more than ever, the future is uncertain, but thankfully we have strong foundations on which we can recover and thrive next year.

Duncan Graham is Managing Director of Retail Excellence

To read the full article in Ireland’s Forecourt & Convenience Retailer, click HERE.

The post Reasons to be cheerful: by Duncan Graham, Retail Excellence appeared first on Ireland's Forecourt & Convenience Retailer.

In an exclusive interview with IFCR, Damien English TD pays tribute to the vital role forecourts played at the height of the pandemic when many businesses and offices were forced to close – and reveals that a new Action Plan will shortly be brought forward to support the retail sector in the long term.

“I would always try to stress this at any event I do with convenience retailers and the forecourt sector, they’ve been immense in looking after their communities and the service they provided right throughout Covid,” he tells IFCR.

“When they were allowed they kept their doors open and tried to use every way they could to try to reach their customers of all ages, through deliveries to online services through to keeping their shops open for longer hours.

“Their teams of people went to great lengths and as a member of the government I want to recognise that through your own publication – I think it’s really, really important that we do that.”

Call of duty

Minister English says retailers went beyond the call of duty to reach out to customers by getting involved in the Government’s Community Call initiative, set up in each county to provide solutions to protect vulnerable groups and individuals.

“A lot of the members were involved in coordinating with the local authorities in each county to reach their customers. They worked an awful lot with the sports clubs and volunteers to reach customers in different ways at different times over the last couple of years, and I want to recognise that,” he said.

Convenience retailers also became a vital source of information for the government during those times, feeding back to the government via the Retail Forum, he says.

“Even in the last couple of months when there was pressure on the supply of the antigen test, the sector again stepped up and was able to provide much needed supply to anybody who needed them and that was an immense challenge in itself.

“A lot of pressure was on them, they had reduced turnover in many cases, they had increased costs but they still did their best to reach out to everybody and support and follow all the guidance and advice from government and from the Department of Health, even though it came at quite a cost and inconvenience. Business owners and certainly the retail sector really beyond a doubt played their part.”

A mixed year

2021 was a mixed year for the sector, with retailers facing particular difficulties with Covid early in the year but an improving outlook as businesses opened up from March onwards,, Minister English says..

“Overall, it’s been a quite successful busy year for the sector, slightly down on 2020 overall but up on 2019. I think this will show that, even with Covid, we’re an increasing population,” he says.

“There’s a lot in the retail sector to be hopeful about for the future, because Ireland is growing and more and more people are working and living here. It’s a sector that will continue to expand and grow, and I think 2021 will prove that, even though a difficult year trying to manage Covid, it was still a busy year.”

However retailers still face tricky conditions due to trying to protect staff and customers, deal with Covid and cope with numerous staff members being off because of sickness or close contacts.

“Certainly in the last six weeks with Omicron, that became a major issue for the retail sector trying to make sure they had enough staff on a daily basis,” Minister English says.

“Overall the majority would say they’re looking to the future and hoping to get back to normal trade. I think from the last week in January, looking ahead it should be a positive year.

“With the remote working changes, that has affected the footfall in a lot of our cities, that moves out to the regions and to a lot of more of our rural areas, so it does affect traffic flows and movement of people. But I think it’s beginning to settle down and we’ll see where that goes over the year.”

Staffing challenges

Recruitment and sourcing supplies have been a challenge, not just because of the Covid but also because of the significant challenges Brexit has posed for the sector.

“While the sector is still employing more than 300,000 people, over the year quite a lot would have been on the Enhanced Illness Benefits at some stage. Numbers as high as 80,000 in the sector would have been out at some stage on the various benefits,” Minister English says.

“Trying to keep staff has been an issue that comes up quite a lot, access to staff and assembling of teams. That’s an issue for Covid but it’s also going to be an issue looking forward as well, having enough people with the skills who are able to work.

“I know from talking to people in the sector, trying to keep the supplies on the shelves and keep pace with that – while they could get everything, to have it in time and to have everything on the shelves was a major, major challenge.”

Recruitment drive

The government is keen to focus on recruitment problems as the country comes out of Covid and into the recovery and growth phase, Minister English said.

“There are two issues there – through three of our departments, the Department of Education, my own department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and also the Department of Social Protection, there are a range of schemes that we operate in conjunction with the retail sector – through Skillnets, through our Education and Training Boards, to assist with the upskilling of existing staff, to assist with training new staff, and there are a lot of various supports and subsidies through our Pathways to Work policy which is a policy belonging to the Department for Social Protection,” he said.

“I would urge a lot of people in this sector to look through that document to engage with our Department of Social Protection to get assistance for taking on new staff, taking staff off the live register, staff going off the PUP payments – there are supports to transition for both employee and employer.”

The sector also wrestled with absenteeism due to staff falling sick or testing positive for Covid.

“It’s not as bad now, but it was certainly very difficult coming through Christmas and the early weeks of January when there was strong health advice here for close contacts to isolate and remain at home, and that put serious pressure on the whole sector,” Minister English says.

“Definitely from a forecourt and convenience point of view, but even from wholesalers and right throughout the system, there was a shortage of staff and many told me that they had to reduce their hours or close certain days or just they were left waiting for products.

Learnings from Covid

“Hopefully we’re through the worst of Covid and I do think we’ve learned a lot as a country and so have our employers. We saw so many of our retailers in the sector going online and bringing their business online so I want to work with them as they continue to develop that online offering and the digitisation of our business, and that will take some of the pressures off staffing levels as well.

“There’s a lot of opportunity but also a difficult couple of years ahead of us as we manage the cost base and manage the labour shortage.”

Retailers are also concerned about the potential hit to the bottom line from new minimum wage and sickness pay levels.

“Certainly, when you’re employing 10, 15, 20 staff, that can knock a few thousand euros in a minimum wage increase off your profit at the end of the day and it’s hard for a small business to recoup that,” the minister says.

“But we’re trying to get the balance right in terms of making sure that work always pays and it’s worth people’s while going to work. We’re trying to get that balanced, fair sustainable rate for low paid workers but also one that doesn’t have a negative impact for employers or competitiveness because we don’t want to lose jobs either.”

National living wage

Some 40% of people on minimum wage work in retail, which is why the retail sector must be consulted when setting the national living wage, he says.

“We have a good online relationship with RGDATA, Retail Ireland, Retail Excellence and CSNA on our forum, constantly feeding us information and representing the case. I’m conscious as minister for retail that wage increases are putting pressure on businesses and we’re all trying to find other ways to support businesses in other directions and other ways to help take some of that impact away – but we do also have to recognise that there is an increase in the cost of living and wages are rising to that level too.

“Again going back to digitisation and adaptation to climate change, it’s important that we’re finding new ways to constantly improve our offering, constantly improve effectiveness of our business and reduce cost as much as we can.

“There are tricky times ahead – the opportunities are there in terms of growth and access to customers, but we have to be constantly striving to reduce costs to be able to handle some of those costs that we’re not in control of, like energy costs.”

Future support

The Government has supported workers and businesses throughout the two years of Covid with initiatives such as wage subsidies, the online retail scheme and the loan guarantee, Mr English says.

But he also wants to look at the long term, which is why his Department has commissioned a retail study, The Future of Retail which is being carried forward by KPMG Analytics and is expected to come back in the next month with a list of suggestions and options for sector support.

“We have to identify the future trends, the opportunities and the challenges in line with our aims here as a country, under our Town Centres First initiative, our Night Time Economy policy, our climate policy, our digitisation agenda,” he says.

“So what I’m looking for now out of that retail study is that we have a set of recommendations that we can take into a Retail Action Plan to be implemented over a period of time to assist the retail sector to grow and develop and to digitise and transform and avail of all the opportunities. I can see through the online trading schemes that there’s an opportunity there for our retailers to take on and win new customers from abroad as well through their online offering.”

Apart from costs, the biggest challenge being reported by the retail sector is sourcing talent, he says.

“We will develop new ways, new courses, apprenticeship programmes, traineeship programmes to match a lot of the in-house training that’s going on,” he says.

“I recognise in this sector there’s quite a lot of in-house training but we want to put a national standard on that, making retail more and more attractive. And part of the changes around minimum wage, sick pay legislation… all that puts a lot of pressure on businesses, but it’s also trying to develop the careers and the quality of the jobs and that will help us with the competition for talent as well.”

To read the full interview in Ireland’s Forecourt & Convenience Retailer yearbook, click HERE.

The post An immense effort from forecourt retailers: Minister Damien English appeared first on Ireland's Forecourt & Convenience Retailer.