Spring Statement 2025: ‘Missed opportunity’ to avoid hospitality cliff edge March 26, 2025 The UK’s leading hospitality body has slammed the Spring Statement as a ‘missed opportunity’ to solve the mounting crisis in Britain’s pubs and bars. The statement contained no phasing in of higher national insurance contributions (NICs) or extra support for the sector, despite pleas from the industry. “Growth won’t just happen without a plan. Today’s [...]
Confidence boost for UK shoppers fails to improve high street retail sales March 11, 2025 High street retail sales continued to fall in February despite a confidence boost for UK consumers, a survey has found. Overall, retail sales increased by 1.1 per cent in February, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).However, this was driven by food sales, which grew 2.3 per cent year-on-year. Non-food sales were flat in February, [...]
Discounting helps retail sales post strong rebound in January February 11, 2025 The survey suggested that price cuts managed to entice consumers to the high street, as in-store sales rose at the fastest pace in nearly two years.
Retail crime ‘spiralling out of control’ despite £1.8bn spent on protection January 30, 2025 Retail crime is “spiralling out of control”, hitting a new high last year despite billions spent on protection. Losses from customer theft reached a record £2.2bn, while retail violence and abuse increased over 50 per cent to more than 2,000 incidents a day, according to the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Annual Crime Survey. More than [...]
Food prices set to rise ‘across the board’ as inflation fears build January 28, 2025 The BRC's shop price index showed that food prices rose 0.5 per cent month-on-month, up from 0.1 per cent in December
UK economy: ‘Consumers see dark days ahead’ January 24, 2025 GfK's overall consumer confidence index fell to -22, which was down five points on December and put confidence at its lowest level since the end of 2023.
UK economy: Consumers catch ‘January blues’ as confidence slumps January 23, 2025 Confidence in the health of the economy fell to its lowest level since the BRC started collecting data on the topic in March 2024.
Retail gloom as festive season fails to save 2024 trading January 7, 2025 High street stores showed anaemic growth in the 2024 festive season, despite hopes that Christmas trading would inject some cheer into the sector. Sales grew just 0.3 per cent overall in the ‘golden quarter’, which includes Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Online sales continued to beat in-store, [...]
Festive period off to a ‘bad start’ for retail sector as sales drop December 3, 2024 The British Retail Consortium's (BRC) sales monitor showed that sales volumes fell 3.3 per cent in the year-to-November, compared to a 2.3 per cent increase last year.
Consumer confidence in the economy dips following Budget November 28, 2024 The British Retail Consortium's (BRC) sentiment monitor showed that consumers' confidence in the economy fell back to -19 in November, down two points from October.