Shop around the clock: the cost/benefit of extended opening drapersonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from drapersonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Selfridges, London
By 5pm yesterday footfall was up 146.2% week on week, reported retail analyst Springboard. High street footfall jumped by 174.4% on the previous week, while shopping centre footfall soared by 217.4% and footfall at retail parks increased by 9.8%. We had a very busy reopening day across our stores nationwide and it s been fantastic to see our store staff and customers again,” said Ian Watson, CEO of Hotter Shoes. “Our footfall was higher than previous lockdown reopenings, demonstrating a real boost of confidence for the high street.
Paul Hayes, CEO at Seasalt, said: “Overall, sales were promising yesterday, and we saw queues form outside 50% of our stores. Our customers were feeding back how happy they were to see us open again – they had certainly missed us and the ability to shop on the high street. Fitting rooms being open once again is a big positive, and helping to drive conversion and reduce returns.
Budget 2021: Fashion retail weighs up the tax balance drapersonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from drapersonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Question marks over true cost of Brexit
A deal has finally been done, but the UK fashion industry is still awaiting vital answers on how it will trade in the post-Brexit era.
Four and a half years after a slim majority of Britons voted to take the UK out of the European Union, the historic Brexit trade deal was finally agreed on Christmas Eve, just days before the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.
The UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA), running to 1,200 pages, is unprecedented in scope, and contains provisions for UK fashion retail and textile businesses such as:
Julian Dunkerton, chief executive of Superdry, called the latest extension “an incredibly important move” as it buys more time for retailers that have been struggling to pay rents amid the coronavirus crisis.
Fergus Patterson, managing director for Northern Europe at Gant, agreed: “We have now managed to reach an agreement with the majority of our landlords over taking joint pain for what has happened during coronavirus, but not all, so the extension is very gratefully received. It gives us more time to discuss, negotiate and hopefully reach a mutual agreement [over rents].”
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Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said the news came “in the nick of time for many retailers”.