Delivered exclusively through the National Skills Academy for Retail’s network of retail skills shops, located on high streets and in shopping centres nationwide, the series of seven master classes covers the key elements for success, including: the all-important vision for the store, developing the brand, buying the right merchandise, the look and feel of the shop and balancing the books.

Against the backdrop of tight economic trading conditions and with the BBC receiving over 6,500 applications from independent retailers desperate to feature on the current TV series of ‘Mary Queen of Shops’, The Mary Portas guide to successful retailing couldn’t be better timed and will be a real boost to thousands of independent and small businesses on the high street.

As outlined in Deloitte’s paper “2010 FIFA World Cup. A Turning Point for South Africa,” South Africa is reaping the rewards of hosting the Cup, including infrastructure improvements, an economic boost, and an increase of national pride.

“South Africa has been likened to a mix of the developed and developing world,” said Lwazi Bam, Public Sector Industry Leader, Deloitte Southern Africa. “On the one hand, a strong technological and economic base put it on a par with the well-developed nations of the world. On the other, infrastructure shortfalls have contributed to keeping it from realizing its full economic potential. This major global event is a catalyst for much-needed infrastructure improvements.”

The need to move tens of thousands of fans, teams, and accompanying supportpersonnel rapidly from one place to another prioritized the strengthening of South Africa’s transportation system.  The country completed much of the
first section of its new high speed Gautrain passenger railway and added bus lines.  Highways were upgraded and the city of Durban was able to finish the country’s first new green field airport in five decades.  These infrastructure projects have increased employment opportunities and provided workers long-term skills and training.

One of the challenges in building the infrastructure for the event was generating power without an unduly adverse environmental impact. New stadium facilities include such environmentally-friendly features as natural ventilation and rain water capture systems.

In addition, host cities have undertaken large-scale tree-planting projects in an effort to soak up excess carbon dioxide.  As a coal-dependent economy, South African faces challenges; however, these steps move the country toward greener energy sources.

To ensure security, the minister of police has consulted with officials from more than 30 different countries whose nationals are in the country, resulting in an unprecedented level of international cooperation.

Seeking to balance a welcoming atmosphere with rigorous security standards, 40,000 police officers, 25 percent of the country’s total force, have been assigned to the Cup.  All of these activities have required a renewed spirit of cooperation between national and local agencies and departments.

Greg Pellegrino, Global Public Sector Industry Leader, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, said;

“South Africa has already realized many of the benefits hoped for by any national host of a major international sporting event. The event has provided a boost to national infrastructure improvements, increased employment during the global financial crisis, and provided a unifying rallying point for a still-developing nation. Moving the FIFA World Cup from a developed economy such as Germany, to an emerging economy such as South Africa, and to a continent that has never hosted the Cup, creates an important precedent for future hosts such as Brazil in 2014,”

That is the message from the Libertarian Alliance concerning measures by the new government to stop shops in England & Wales from selling alcohol at below cost price. I would like to think that it is a tongue in cheek response to the government plans that have received support from Tesco.

The outspoken Director of Libertarian Alliance, Dr Sean Gabb, made the following comments in London this week:

“The Government’s proposal, and the welcome given it by Tesco’s, amount to an attack on the poor. The ruling class politicians who continually whine about alcohol will not be affected by minimum pricing or the abolition of special offers. I might add that none of them can be affected by such laws. Income aside, anyone who lies his way into Parliament can look forward to round the clock drinking in the Palace of Westminster of untaxed alcohol.

But the measures will hurt poor people, for whom alcohol will become cripplingly expensive and hard to find. They have the same right to drink as the rest of us. Bearing in mind the problems willed on them by our exploitative ruling class, they often have a greater need to drink.

The claim that drinking ’causes’ public disorder is nonsense. Alcohol does not run about the streets. People do. If people are making nuisances of themselves, the police should be reminded that they are no longer New Labour’s equivalent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and told to start protecting life and property again.

But, going back to Tesco’s, this is also another attempt by a joint stock limited liability corporation – which has no right to exist – to limit competition and raise profits. We have no doubt the Company will use the good publicity got from supporting this wicked policy to win planning permission appeals to build more superstores. The incidental misery into which millions of our poorest fellow citizens will be thrown never crosses their privileged, high-salaried minds.

On behalf of the Libertarian Alliance, I call on all progressive people of good will to boycott Tesco until it stops supporting this attack on the poor and on free competition.”

We would point out that while we find this article amusing, it does deliver a strong relevant message, not about alcohol particularly, but moreover the manipulative nature of big business on national law making.

On the context of the story, I firmly believe that selling any product for under cost price is fundamentally wrong in business, particularly as the customer will be paying over the odds for other products from the same supplier to counter act the losses.

As a teetotaller I very much resent the fact that my shopping bill is subsidising others who do purchase alcoholic products or anything else at below cost price – whoever they are.

next

The UK’s second largest clothing retailer, Next has warned that consumer spending is likely to slow after the General Election as the new government takes stricter measures to tackle the budget deficit.

Next does expect sales and profits to improve during 2010, but they remain ‘very cautious in our outlook for the year ahead.’

Next reports that sales for the business increased in the 13weeks to end of April 2010, by 2.2% over the same quarter in 2009, but that high street sales had actually fallen by 0.8% in the period.

The Next Directory catalogue and online sales put a smile on the faces of the board as sales increased by 7.2% in that area, making up for the poorer performance of the chain of retail outlets.

The figures suggest that the public are still spending, although not necessarily physically travelling to the high street stores and comes as no real surprise as online spending continues to grow in the UK.

Next said it was on track to achieve a full-year profit towards the top end of market expectations, with growth in sales and dividends expected.

wetherspoons pub peterborough

There have been many reports relating to the decline in standards of Public Houses across the UK this year and coupled with a fall in trade aided by the financial crisis it has been no surprise to see so many establishments calling time and closing down for good.

Things are slightly different at J D Wetherspoon where the pub operator has announced that it will step up its expansion programme, with the opening of 250 pubs over the next five years.

Along with the new premises Wetherspoon are hoping to create over 10,000 jobs in the UK with new pubs being earmarked in Sheffield, Livingston, Leominster, Otley, New Malden, Liverpool, Haverfordwest and Newcastle.

Wetherspoon reported record sales in the year ending July 2009 and say that they will be investing £250 million to realise their expansion plans in the UK. The group opened 39 pubs in the year to July and is on course for 40 more openings by the same time next year.

Tim Martin, chairman of J D Wetherspoon says: “Our pubs are extremely popular and we wish to build on their success by opening more,”

the co-op

Mutual retailer, the Co-operative Group has today announced that it is prepared to fight like for like with the UK’s top supermarket chains for a share of the public festive season spend, by introducing price cuts and savings that they say are worth £200 million customers.

As the silly season is practically upon us the Co-op has stepped out of the shadows of some of its bigger rivals following recent proposals from Tesco to offer customers savings of £250 million over the Christmas period and rival Asda predicting the most competitive Christmas for a decade.

As well as cutting prices Co-op has another string to its bow for customers by including their first ever triple dividend payment.

Normally Co-op members earn one point for every pound spent in food stores and each year the value of a membership point is determined by how much profit the group makes.

For the last annual payment, the value of a point was set at 2 pence. On this basis, a triple dividend would be worth 6 pence in the pound.

mothercare expanding

Baby product and children’s wear retailer Mothercare, who announced an 11% increase in profits recently, have announced expansion plans for both the UK and overseas markets.

Mothercare say that they will be taking on an extra 400 staff in the UK over the next three years and will be increasing the rate of new overseas outlets in what the company call an ‘ideal expansion time.’

The retailer, which also owns the toy chain Early Learning Centre, has plans to reduce its presence on the UK high street and concentrate its efforts on opening more out of town mega stores, which currently makes up 40% of their UK store space and produces 65% 0f turnover and profit.

The company are also keen to increase its presence worldwide after recording a ‘record first half ‘ in its international division, where sales from its 694 overseas stores rose by almost a third. The company opened 85 new stores during the period including franchises in China and India.

Mothercare CEO Ben Gordon said it was an ideal time for expansion as ‘Landord’s are negotiating. The boot is on the other foot right now’ and revealed that the retailer has had a ‘lot of success’ in reducing rents.

debenhams pre xmas sale

Debenhams have announced that they will hold a four day pre-Christmas sale starting on November 18th in a move that is bound to spark a frenzied price war on the high street in the run up to the holiday period.

The department store says that it will be offering savings of £250 million to customers during the four day sale and say that they are likely to follow the pattern set last year when Debenhams held two extended sales during the run up to the festive season.

Deputy chief executive Michael Sharp said:

“Customers everywhere continue to feel the pinch in this recession. In fact many feel that there still is no light at the end of the tunnel.”

The UK’s biggest supermarkets have already said they expect this Christmas to be the most competitive for at least ten years and a recent survey says that 40% of London’s retail outlets expect to offer promotions and discounts over the coming weeks.

Marks & Spencer on the other hand feel that their market is secure and say they expect to trade up to Christmas at full price, with no need to discount prices until the traditional January sales.

clinton store rugby

High street greeting card retailer Clinton Cards has announced pre tax profits for the year of £24.1million, up from £22million a year ago. Chief executive Clinton Lewin also revealed plans to launch an online card service to take on rivals like moonpig.com who have rapidly developed the online business and have become something of an internet success story.

Moonpig.com enjoyed a turnover of £20.9million from online sales last year and Clinton’s see the importance of developing that side of the business, with low overheads and good returns.

Clinton Cards also have plans to go into mobile marketing with an iPhone application. Lewin says that trading this year has been satisfactory but not exceptional. The company are gearing up for Christmas when one third of their annual turnover will be taken.

The computer world is becoming more virtual than ever with the advent of Cloud Computing Services, where files can be saved and accessed from an online storage system, making the loss of data a thing of the past.

the co-op

The Co-operative Group in the UK have reported an incredible 80% increase in sales of its ‘Simply Value‘ range of food products, while sales of Fairtrade products also rose by 35%, resulting in an overall increase of 17% in the companies first half profit.

The Co-op is Britain’s fifth biggest chain of grocery stores after purchasing the Somerfield chain in 2008, the pre tax profit for the group for the half year is reported as being £228.8million, while the number of new members rose by 300,000.

The Co-operative Group CEO Peter Marks told the BBC 5 Live programme;

“When I said we were acquiring Somerfield, I also said that we’d use some of the savings to reduce our prices which we’ve done. We’ve improved our product range, spent a lot of money modernising our stores and all of that together has meant that we’re getting new customers.”

The Co-operative Group has 5,300 retail outlets in the UK and as well as being the fifth largest grocery outlet also boast the third biggest pharmacy chain, the largest independent travel business and the number one provider of funeral services.

The group has around 4.5 million members.