FEBRUARY NEWS ROUND FROM THE HUB
- Date: 17 February 2016
- Posted By: admin
At this time of year, there’s lots of news relevant to our industry – business more generally, and retail specifically. Here’s a roundup of the headlines that caught our eye at The Hub.
ALDI: are set to open a further 100 UK stores this year, taking their B & M up to 700. They estimate this will create a further 5000 jobs. So that’s the good news. There is however some consternation over its advertising practices. Some experts allege that Aldi is misleading the consumer by making unfair comparisons with say, it’s minced beef against Tesco’s Finest minced beef; or its own orange juice against Tropicano. The Advertising Standards Agency says it hasn’t received any complaints. But it’s one to watch – no pun intended! Here’s a link to one report:
B & M FOOTFALL STATS: interestingly, footfall for B & M was up in January by 1.2% on a year ago – not only because of the sales, but also a cold snap has driven us out to look for some warm clothes. This was a welcome turnaround after a dismal December slump of -2.2%. As February sets to be chilly, it’ll be interesting to see if this upward trend continues. Here’s a link to a report to find out more:
2 MILLION RETAIL JOBS TO GO: according to a Deloitte report, 59% of retail jobs have a ‘high chance’ of disappearing over the next 20 years – because of automation and technological advances, particularly on-line. The report cites home delivery, self-service; and automation as the main reasons for this prediction. Read more here:
UK EMPLOYMENT AT ITS HIGHEST SINCE RECORDS BEGAN: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that those in employment – that’s people between the ages of 16 and 64 – is at its highest since records began in 1971. It also says that average wages are rising a little slower than expected at 2% including bonuses. CPI (consumer price index) is at 0.3%, a mere 0.1% up on last month. PPI – producer price inflation – the price of goods bought and sold by UK manufacturers continues to fall. There’s lots on this, but here’s two links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35359689
and
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/february-2016/statistical-bulletin.html
MENTAL HEALTH WEEK: It’s a good time to consider whether, as employers, we’re watching closely enough the bottom line cost of absent staff. It’s estimated that the average is £554 per person per year. It’s also estimated that only 8% or UK businesses has a well-being strategy that supports the business’s wider organisational strategy. It’s no surprise then that 61% of businesses deal with health issues reactively, and that less than 40% of organisations know how much absence is costing. Here’s the CIPD’s executive summary of a full report on this issue:
And finally in this news roundup…
REPORTING THE GENDER PAY GAP: the Government has issued a consultation on its draft regulations for mandatory reporting of the pay gap between men and women in all private sector businesses with 250 staff or more. These regulations could come into force as early as October this year. This will be a statutory requirement, so any of us with 250 people or more, need to get up to speed with this issue. Here’s the Government’s consultation document – it is really quite short, so if this is going to apply to you, do have a read – and also have your say.
We hope you found these news items interesting – if you want to discuss them further, let us know. And do look out for THE HUB’S next issue of NEWSROUND – out in March.