News retra and CIH respond to Mary Portas’ report The report overlooks the root of the high street’s problems


IN a joint statement, retra and CIH criticized the Mary Portas report for overlooking the key problems high street retailers are facing, and advised their members not to participate in the Channel 4 programme seeking to feature


‘independent shops that are struggling to survive’. Bryan Lovewell, retra’s chief executive, commented: “In her much anticipated report into the future of UK high streets, the headline recommendation from Ms Portas and her team was about relaxing licensing rules for market stalls to make it easier for people to set up stands. What about the long established bricks and mortar retailers that feature on high streets across the country – these have been forgotten by Ms Portas, and now comes a TV show that will heighten her profile, after a dumbed down report paid for by taxpayers.” Mr Lovewell revealed that retra attempted to have a


meeting with Ms Portas to discuss the electrical retailing industry, but her team declined such a meeting.” Stuart Cook, CIH’s chief executive, said: “The government, and the self- styled Mary ‘Queen of Shops’ Portas, have let down high street electrical retailers with this much- anticipated report. High streets up and down the country are suffering; businesses that have traded for generations have closed their doors and now is the time for the coalition government to act.”


In a joint statement, retra and CIH have advised their members against participating in the Channel 4 programme encouraging ‘struggling to survive or expand’ retailers to take part in the documentary and to receive advice from a retail expert.


“The content of these


programmes are unknown, but one thing is certain, the profile of Ms Portas will only escalate,” the two organisations said.


“Ms Portas has not looked


at the root of the problems that independent electrical retailers are facing.”


Enter your company for Best Independent Retailer Awards Time to nominate for the Independent Business Awards 2012


THE preparations for the twentieth Independent Business Awards are underway. The Awards have the longest heritage of any awards in the electrical industry. The organisers are calling independent dealers, who would like to bring to the industry’s attention their professional achievements, to nominate their companies for the Best Independent Retailer Awards.


The 2012 independent retailer categories are:


• Best Small Independent Retailer (with a turnover below £1.5 million) – in CE, DA or CE&DA • Best Large Independent Retailer (with a turnover greater than £1.5 million) – in CE, DA or CE&DA • Best Customer Service • Best Regional Multiple (with a turnover in excess of £5 million, which has minimum of 10 or more outlets).


The winners of this year’s


Awards will be announced on 21 June 2012 at a gala


Best Small CE Independent in 2011 – Tavistock Sound & Vision


Consumer electronics (audio and video) suffered the most in 2011, declining in value by 14%, which was around £800 million loss at retail, reported GfK. This rate continues monthly and weekly into January. Causes include heavy price erosion, limited innovation and some cannibalisation (MP3 players by smartphones for example). However the very largest TVs continue to grow in sales, along with soundbars, headphones, TV wall mounts and portable digital radios. The coming London Switchover and summer of sport will bring forward some sales of key devices into the first half of the year, giving a much needed boost to a number of categories.


The IT markets had a much better year, with value growth of just over 10%. This was driven by eReaders, web books, storage devices and a number of accessories. Heavy price erosion has been evident but the innovations have allowed growth.


Figures released by the British Retail Consortium and Google have shown that total retail online search volumes grew 24% in the last three months of 2011, compared with the same period a year earlier. The increase was driven by a rise in mobile and tablet search volumes which grew by 169% year-on-year. On Christmas Day mobile and tablet searches accounted for 26% of overall retail searches.


dinner held at The Forest of Arden Hotel, Warwickshire. The closing date for submitting the nominations is 3 March 2012.


All nominations should be submitted online at www.independentbusinessawards.com. For further information and advice on submitting nominations please contact Nichola Munn, IBA Events Coordinator at 01622 699170 or nmunn@datateam.co.uk


When Woolworths went into administration three years ago Britain mourned a high street icon with a shrug and a nostalgic last visit to the store. But while British shops were sold to Primark or Poundland, the Germans restructured the brand. In 12 months Woolworths has opened 50 new shops across Germany and now has 200, with plans for 500.


retra has refreshed its website, with a new, contemporary design. Located at www.retra.co.uk, the website has been redesigned by Glenfield Software Solutions.


February 2012 The Independent Electrical Retailer 5


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