Jan

Retail turmoil sees more store closures and job losses in 2020…

admin

Uncategorized Tags

agents

High Street:

Retail decline
continues in 2020 with several large groups closing stores and laying
off staff.

Retailers and staff
unions are seeking urgent action from government for the high street
as the number of stores, pubs and restaurants close, with town centre
properties lying empty in increasing numbers.

Throughout last year
around 16 stores closed every day. This was off-set to some extent
with around 9 new openings, but Britain’s top 500 high streets saw
a net decline of 1,234 stores, that’s according to figures produced
by the Local Data Company (LDC), retail analysts, and
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

These alarming
figures are for chain stores alone and do not include independent
stores – the closure figures produced for 2019 were the highest on
record.

So far in 2020 new
research shows that around 10,000 retail jobs have already been lost
in January, with Mothercare, Debenhams, Game, Beales, HMV, Arcadia
toy retailer Hawkin’s Bazaar, Morrisons and Asda closing, closing
outlets or announcing redundancy plans.

Changing consumer
shopping habits, including new technology and the rise in online
sales, are to blame for the store closures and loss of jobs,
according to new research. The rising prevalence of cashier-less
checkouts will likely continue to impact on the number of retail
jobs. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) predicts that with
new technology on the way 65% of retail cashiers and checkout
operators and 60% of stock control staff jobs will become redundant
in the future.

But despite all the
turmoil, landlords and owners of retail property are looking to the
future availability of 5G wireless network technology as a potential
high street saviour.

Scott Morey,
executive director at Altus Group, told ITV News:

“5G presents a
great opportunity for retailers to further improve the underlying
performance of their physical stores by transforming the customer
experience and shifting the role of their store personnel towards
higher value tasks.

“Shoppers
fundamentally rely on stores during various stages of their shopping
journey and 5G has the potential to further improve that
interaction.”

However, the
findings of an Altus Group report provide a more optimistic outlook
than the forecasts produced by the Office for National Statistics
predict 65% of all retail cashiers and checkout operator jobs will
become redundant in future, as will 60% of staff working in stock
control.

Prime Minister Boris
Johnson is set to decide this week whether to allow the use of
Chinese Huawei technology in Britain’s new 5G network despite
protests from the US Government.

Mr Morey thinks
that:

“Whilst 5G will
transform the consumer experience, the starting point will be for
telecom companies and real estate owners to provide the
infrastructure and physical location points so 5G can reach its full
potential.”

Meanwhile, John
Whittaker the
biggest investor in Intu,
the leading
shopping centres property
company that owns
Lakeside in Essex and
Manchester’s Trafford Centre among several others, is being forced
to to restructure his
shareholding to appease
lenders.

John
Whittaker’s
private company Peel
Group owns 29.3% of Intu Properties and
has had to stump up more cash for the
special-purpose vehicles that hold his shares in
Intu as the stock
price has fallen and
lenders got the jitters.

View Full Article: Retail turmoil sees more store closures and job losses in 2020…