This week's retail news 'you may have missed'.....
At mdj2, we’re passionate about retail and always looking to share our news, views, and insights. With so much information out there, we wanted to share just a small selection of retail news headlines from last week that we found interesting…?
?Poundland launches ‘Motherland’ store as it expands baby and kidswear.
Poundland is launching a new flagship store in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, dubbed “Motherland” due to its extensive baby and kidswear collection.
The 10,000 sq ft store, a former Outlet, which is due to open on 24 February, currently displays “coming soon” hoardings featuring “Motherland” signage.
The signage, which was erected earlier this week, was put up to inform shoppers this will be a store housing the?business’s?widest range of clothing, including baby and kidswear.
Poundland has been ramping up its kidswear as it aims to become “one of the best desinations for family fashion”
In its stores that sell clothing, Poundland has doubled the amount of space dedicated to baby and grown kidswear by 50%.
Poundland completed its transition to new clothing ranges powered by Pepco Group last year,?bringing its family fashion offer to nearly 600 UK and Ireland stores.
The kidswear range expansion allows the?discounter?to take advantage of Pepco’s major licensing partnerships, with the?parent company’s?new ranges featuring new licensed products including Harry Potter, Gremlins and Tom & Jerry ranges.
Alongside its clothes offer, the Biggleswade store will house a full general merchandise range, chilled and frozen food, and its classic wide range of household and grocery items.
Poundland commercial director Tim Bettley said: “As we’ve expanded our baby and kidswear, our customers have nicknamed us ‘Motherland’!
“That’s why we’ve used the sign at Biggleswade but across the majority of our UK stores, those same new ranges are available right now.”
He added: “We look forward to showing parents in Biggleswade what a modern Poundland offer now offers.”
?New B&Q Local Staines Store Now Open.
B&Q, the UK’s leading home improvement retailer has today (Friday 26 January) opened its doors to its tenth new B&Q Local store which is located on the Staines high street (61 High Street, Staines, TW18 4QW).???
B&Q Local is a new smaller high street format providing customers with speed, convenience, and access to B&Q’s wider offer of products and services but closer to home.??
The new compact 4,000 sq. ft store will offer 3,500 products, available either in store for immediate pick-up or next day click and collect, as well as access to over 30,000 additional home improvement products for home delivery.??Customers can access to the full range through home delivery and click and collect.??
?John Lewis confirms plans to cut workforce over the next five years.
John Lewis?has confirmed to ITV News that it will be looking to reduce the size of its workforce as part of a wider plan to "return to profit" over the next five years.
It follows a Guardian report, published on Saturday, that said the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) was looking to slash up to 11,000 jobs - 10% of its workforce - across the group’s head office, supermarkets and department stores.
The statement to ITV News did not confirm the number of jobs that would be cut.
It said: "The John Lewis Partnership has a plan to return to profit, which involves investing heavily to enhance our customer offer, technology, stores and becoming more efficient.
"This is working and performance is improving, but as we have already announced, that sadly means reducing the number of Partners we need in our business.
"It would be inappropriate to discuss details and our Partners will be the first to know about any changes."
The Guardian detailed that "rising pay and other costs and poor sales" are a few of the reasons behind the decision, as the company battles to bounce back from a ￡230m full-year loss.
In a series of messages seen by ITV News from the John Lewis intranet, employees voiced their frustration at the news.
"How does the way this decision has been announced and timed, with the opportunity for no debate at all, sit with our Democratic Vitality principles of sharing Knowledge, Power and Partner Opinion?" one person wrote.
Another said: "After reading this announcement I am angry and dismayed that our 'Leadership Team' think that the way this decision has been reached and communicated is acceptable, especially as we are about to go through a period of change with what a lot of Partners are now assuming will involve numerous redundancies... When are we going to start being honest and admit that we are a Partnership in name only."
The company has cut thousands of jobs since it launched its turnaround plan almost four years ago, through the closure of high street stores as well as head office redundancies.
On Thursday, it was announced that the company is to halve its redundancy pay package for workers as the troubled retail giant continues to slash costs as part of its major overhaul.
The move has ratcheted up concerns that more job cuts could be imminent at the retail group, which runs the department store chain and Waitrose grocery business.
Workers were informed on Thursday morning that the group will water down part of its partnership redundancy pay plan.
It said the group’s redundancy pay package, which gives workers two weeks of redundancy pay for every year at the business, will be reduced by half to provide one week of pay per year as a partner.
This is in addition to statutory redundancy pay.
JLP said the move will provide it with more funds to put towards supporting its budgets and could be put towards its next pay review.
?Superdry mulls UK store closures in fight for survival.
Superdry is drawing up plans to close UK stores and cut rents as the group works with advisers at PwC on restructuring plans.
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Options for the?retailer?could include a company voluntary arrangement (CVA).
The struggling business has been attempting to negotiate consensual rent cuts on problematic stores.
Superdry currently operates 216 shops, with 96 based in the UK.
The development comes after the group’s boss Julian Dunkerton admitted Superdry was facing a “difficult period” ahead, as it?posted widening losses?and revealed CFO Shaun Wills had quit the business.
The retailer’s sales plunged 23% to ￡219.8m in the half to 28 October, which it blamed on a challenging retail market, unseasonable weather and underperformance of its wholesale segment.
However, Superdry had seen some “more encouraging trends” during the recent cold snap, with sales falling at a slower rate of 13.7% in the 12 weeks to 20 January.
In December, the business also revealed it was?considering the sale of its brand rights in the US and Middle East?as it sought to boost its liquidity.
?Third of UK customers will pay more for excellent service, despite cost-of-living crisis.
A new report from The Institute of Customer Service reveals that UK consumers are more than willing to pay a premium for goods and services, in return for excellent service – despite the cost-of-living crisis.
The report also warns that customer satisfaction across the UK has fallen to its lowest level since 2015, in a sign that customers are voting with their feet in protest of poor service.
The latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), which since 2008 has benchmarked customer satisfaction at over 200 of the UK’s leading businesses, shows that 31.3% of customers say they are prioritising excellent service, even if it costs more, when purchasing goods or services.
By contrast, poor service is costing businesses dearly; nearly half (41%) of customers who are dissatisfied with a business say they avoid using it again, and just 1.5% say they would spend more with that business going forward.
Ocado tops the table for best service
Ocado, the online food and groceries business, scored the highest satisfaction rating – and alongside this, achieved ‘record’ high sales over the holiday period. Ocado is followed by first direct, John Lewis, and Nationwide.
Ranking Organisation Sector Jan-24 Score
1 Ocado Retail (Food) 85.7
2 first direct Banks & Building Societies 85.3
3 John Lewis Retail (Non-food) 85.1
4 Nationwide Banks & Building Societies 84.8
5 Tesco Mobile Telecommunications & Media 84.6
6 Costco Retail (Non-food) 84.2
6 Jet2holidays.com Tourism 84.2
8 Timpson Services 84.0
9 Holland & Barrett Retail (Non-food) 83.9
10 Starling Bank Banks & Building Societies 83.7
When asked why they would be willing to pay more for excellent service, customers cited trust in the company (31%) and access to support and advice (30%) as the key drivers.
The report highlights the strong returns to be gained for organisations that prioritise great service, outlining that businesses with higher satisfaction scores also have higher earnings (EBITDA) – 10 percentage points higher on average – and staff productivity (average revenue per employee: ￡717,739 for above average vs ￡297,025 for below average) than their competitors, over the last 5 – 6 years.
Commenting on the latest report, Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service, said:
“These latest figures are a clear signal to business leaders and board members that customer service is not an optional extra, but a strategic imperative. Customers are demanding better service, especially in times of rising costs and uncertainty. They will not hesitate to switch to organisations that they can trust to deliver on their expectations.”
“It also highlights that the gap between businesses getting it right, and those getting it wrong, is widening – and the impact of a strong service strategy on an organisation’s bottom line has never been clearer.”
“Trust is a precious asset that can take years to build, but seconds to lose. On the other hand, when customers trust an organisation, they are more likely to try new offerings, share positive feedback, and give them a chance to resolve any issues.”
The UK Customer Satisfaction Index is a twice-yearly report based on 59,250 survey responses provided by more than 15,000 individual customers, representative of the UK adult population.
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