A blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas

A third of consumers intend to spend less on Christmas than they did last year. Retailers will now need to be at the top of their game to reap the rewards during the traditional golden sales period. Recent research by ICM shows that consumers are reluctant to spend frivolously which is more bad news for the sector with last Christmas being the worst recorded on record with like-for-like sales down 3.3%. The third of consumers looking to spend less is roughly the percentage of the UK population that have been directly affected by the recession, either by having lost their jobs or having their hours cut.

Online retail continues its upward movement unabated. The UK online market increased to £17.5 billion in 2008 compared to just £3.9 billion in 2002. Online retail is now growing at a rate eight times that of the overall retail market. In the ICM Poll the results for retailers with on-line capability is encouraging with 13% of people polled saying they will buy a lot more on-line, 19% a bit more and 43% buying about the same as last year.

So what does this mean for interim managers in the retail sector? With businesses focussed on trading and cash management, projects still shelved and the turnaround market still not prevalent in the sector it looks like a difficult time for Interims focussed on retail and it could well continue into 2010.

I would welcome your thoughts on the above and look forward to keeping in touch with you all in the run up to Christmas.

Jonathan Flynn is Head of the Retail Practice at Interim Partners.l;”>

So what does this mean for interim managers in the retail sector? With businesses focussed on trading and cash management, projects still shelved and the turnaround market still not prevalent in the sector it looks like a difficult time for Interims focussed on retail and it could well continue into 2010.

I would welcome your thoughts on the above and look forward to keeping in touch with you all in the run up to Christmas.

Jonathan Flynn is Head of the Retail Practice at Interim Partners.

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