The Retail Sector Expect a Bleak Christmas

In a previous post, we discussed how a rise in online sales is helping secure the survival of the British high street .However, a recent report reveals that Christmas sales on the high street this year could be even worse than 2008.

While, a reported increase in retail sales throughout June and July was encouraging, the pace of recovery has been slowed by a decrease in consumer spending and according to management consultancy firm Baker & Marks, in the last financial quarter the number of retail companies experiencing financial difficulty has risen sharply. Indeed the business consultants expect a significant number of these companies to enter administration in the next year.

Nigel Baker, senior partner at Baker and Marks comment: “The news of spiraling unemployment and redundancy which has dominated the media in the last month,has done nothing to increase consumer confidence. As a result ,many of the UK’s smaller retailers are concerned that Christmas 2009 maybe the worse the retail sector has ever experienced.”

Matthew Hytner, communication director of the Institute of Small Companies and Enterprise says: “For many small companies and businesses that have recently completed the company formation process, Christmas is the most important time of year. The findings of this report are consistent with the anxiety many of our member are feeling.”