Last weekend wasn’t a good one for retailers and not only because the weather kept shoppers indoors. Reading a leading broadsheet over coffee on Saturday morning, every page seemed to paint the sector in a hostile light.
Crash! Asda and Sainsbury’s plead guilty to fixing the price of milk. Bang! Store cards cost consumers two thirds more in interest than the average credit card. Wallop! Christmas booze promotions mean more people are drinking themselves to death.
One day, one newspaper. And it shows the scale of the job facing the new man tasked with speaking for retail. Being Mike Ashley’s investor relations man would be easier.
The BRC has picked the right man to be its director-general. Stephen Robertson has worked in senior roles for three big retailers, as well as several major suppliers. Crucially, he is one of the industry’s best communicators – a skill that will be tested in his dealings with the Government, the media and BRC members.
His predecessor Kevin Hawkins has been a steadfast defender of the industry and retail owes him a debt of gratitude. But the ever-growing attacks on the industry have forced the BRC to become increasingly reactive and the headlines this week show that retail is on the back foot.
Many people in this country, including some very important ones, believe that retailers are responsible for every social woe, from obesity and drunkenness in the UK to poverty in the Third World. For the industry to retake the initiative, retailers need to put aside their differences and work together through a modernised and proactive BRC.
From the horse’s mouth
On the subject of the media, we are often accused of talking the market down. So here is what one of the UK’s best-known retailers told me this week, in his own words:
“This will be the worst Christmas since 1989. Beer promotions and cheap petrol mean the grocers will do OK, but one interest rate cut after five increases won’t make a difference. Everyone is discounting, there’ll be alot of bad news in January and next year it’s going to get even worse.”
Anyone care to argue?
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