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The essential news source for the home improvement industry 11 AUGUST 2017


POS & MERCHANDISING SPECIAL Six pages dedicated to top tips


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INSIDE THIS WEEK


A FAMILY AFFAIR A look round Bents, as it cel- ebrates 80 years


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GLOBAL DIY SUMMIT The first in a series of reports from the event


IMPULSE BUYS A focus on how retailers can increase potential for pick-up sales in store


WWW.DIYWEEK.NET


Homewares sales make a comeback in July


While the non-food category saw declines during the four-week period, homeware retailers were a “success story”, says the British Retail Consortium in its latest retail sales monitor. Figures reported in the BRC- KPMG Retail Sales Monitor for the four weeks ended July 29, 2017 revealed that UK retail sales increased by 1.4%, up 0.9% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis from July 2016, when they had increased 1.1% LFL from the preceding year.


BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson OBE said: “The month’s growth was underpinned by food sales alone, while non- food sales relapsed into negative territory as the competition heats up over a shrinking pool of discretionary consumer spending power. “Despite the gloomy picture for non-food overall, there were some success stories. The homewares category for instance, which lost out in the previous month to summer wardrobe purchases, moved to the top of the performance rankings.”


KPMG UK head of retail Paul Martin added that “the rainy month turned attention indoors, with furniture and home accessory sales benefiting.” Food sales delivered solid


growth during the month and over the three months to July, while non-food did not fare so well. Over the three-months to July, non-food retail sales in the UK decreased by 0.7% on a like-for-like basis and by 0.4% on a total basis. This is below the 12-month total average growth of 0.4%.


All categories performed well online, with sales of non-food products up 8.3% in July, compared to 11.2% a year earlier. Over the three-months to July, online sales of non-food products grew 7.8% while the 12-month average stands at 8.4%. KPMG UK head of retail Paul Martin concluded: “Interestingly, July retail sales diverge from the latest consumer confidence


figures, which noted a downturn in consumer sentiment. “This divide suggests that UK shopping patterns remain mixed, although with demand continuing to be weak, retailers would be wise to remain cautious.”


Disruption to Argos distribution as workers gear up to strike


Argos customers could see a delay of three weeks for their orders as more than 1,000 warehouse staff get set to strike over an ongoing redundancy payments row.


The UK catalogue retailer is faced with three weeks of strikes across its distribution network in a dispute over the failure of the company to negotiate a national agreement covering redundancy and severance packages.


Unite, the union that


represents the 1,100 workers affected, has warned that deliveries to customers will be severely hit once the strikes by the warehouse staff begin early in the morning of Tuesday, August 15 and running until early Tuesday, September 5.


The four sites at Basildon, Essex; Bridgwater, Somerset; Castleford (West Yorkshire); and Heywood (Greater Manchester), which are covered by the union, will be joined in the strike by


workers at the Barton Business Park warehouse in Burton-on- Trent, who wish to be covered by the forum.


When Argos opted not


to renew the lease on its Lutterworth distribution hub in Leicestershire, nearly 500 workers were transferred to Wincanton Logistics in Kettering, Northamptonshire. Following this decision, Unite is angry that Argos has failed to give guarantees to workers at all of its logistics sites that their future terms and


conditions will be safeguarded. The union said it is worried about the intentions of Argos. Unite national officer for logistics


and retail distribution Matt Draper said: “We want a comprehensive national agreement with the employer covering redundancy and severance packages, as well as our members at Barton being covered by such an agreement. “These strikes will enormously


affect deliveries to Argos customers as the firm works on ‘a just in time’ delivery policy.”


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