Sales sink for independent shops

Independent shops sales sunk following warm weather and flooding at the end of 2015, according to BIRA.

An eighteen month run of rising sales for Britain’s small shops came to an end in the last quarter of 2015. This was also noticed by the ONS, as unseasonably warm weather, flooding, early and deep discounting, slipping footfall and what some have referred to as an ‘internet Christmas’ all combined to turn growth into decline.

Retailer confidence has been dented but more are optimistic than anxious and this is going to be needed as they face more of the same in 2016 – along with a heavy load of cost delivered by the government as business rates, still unreformed, go up in April, just as the £1,500 per property discount is removed and the National Living Wage kicks in.