Jan 7, 2025
Welcome to 2025 – Retailing in the UK has never been tougher!
As we welcome in 2025, there is no denying that it is going to be a challenging year for UK retail. There are several factors that are creating ‘a perfect storm’ of cost pressures.
- Employers’ National Insurance
- increase in the minimum wage
- Increase in shoplifting theft
- New packaging levies
- Difficulty in filling roles
Some estimates are that there is an additional burden of up to £70bn per year (BRC – British Retail Consortium) for UK retailers.
This will inevitably be reflected in higher prices and tougher negotiations. It is not only retailers that have cost pressures! Most of these factors also effect suppliers, who also have increased costs on imports and fluctuating exchange rates versus other major currencies.
We can look forward to some interesting and testing discussions as both parties endeavour to navigate their way through these complex issues and seek to minimise the impact on shoppers.
Are your Account Teams ready for the challenge, of maintaining strong relationships whilst having tough discussions with their retail counterparts?
Knowledge of the support offered by GSCOP legislation could be vital to your success. Make sure that your teams are ‘Code Confident’.
To support your customer and legal teams, the British Brands Group provides a range of functional training with courses covering GSCOP, Competition law and compliance and Trading with Amazon. All feature a strong commercial bias, being about understanding and application in the trading world. This training is available as Classroom or Virtual offerings.
These courses receive excellent feedback, scoring highly with attendees (4.5 or more out of 5.0) who state they would recommend the training to a colleague.
