Devizes town centre this week A pause on party politics would greatly help struggling businesses hampered by lockdown, a retail expert has said. Malmesbury s Gordon MacPherson, of the Retailer Group, has highlighted the set of challenges that different sets of retailers face during this lockdown. He said: I work closely with businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors and I see these businesses categorised into four types. The first includes those that are thriving – the firms that are lucky to operate in either a niche or essential sector, have pivoted online or have the funds to invest cheaply in businesses that have taken the hit, we are likely to see examples of this over the coming months with Fraser Group (sports Direct ) already benefiting as the buy distressed businesses.