Coronavirus

Footfall suffers despite June reopening

Footfall in June saw a “significant improvement” against the 73.3% decline reported in May, but was still less than half the level of last year, with an annual decline of 56.6%. According to the latest figures from Springboard, footfall fell by 65.1% in high streets and 62.3% in shopping centres,…

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Online retail sales continue to boom despite reopenings

Even as the high street came out of hibernation last month, June’s online retail sales spiked to a 12-year high of +33.9% YoY, according to IMRG Capgemini’s Online Retail Index. It revealed that last month’s acceleration in online sales was underpinned by the “continued success” of almost every category. Electrical…

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Footfall decline eases amid ‘sluggish’ recovery

Footfall across the UK rose by 19% in June against the month prior, but was still down by 62.6% year-on-year, according to the latest figures from the BRC.  In the first two weeks of the month, footfall decline averaged 77.1%, but this improved to 53.3% in the remaining three weeks…

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Organisers of JGW reshuffle dates to November

Organisers of Jewellery and Gem World Hong Kong (JGW) have announced they are rescheduling the show for 9-3 November 2020 at AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE). Previously known as the September Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair, JGW was originally set for September at two venues, 13-17 September at the AWE, where precious…

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Arrest over suspected furlough fraud

A West Midlands man has been arrested as part of an HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation into a suspected £495,000 Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) fraud. HMRC officers executed a search warrant yesterday (8 July 2020) in the Solihull area and arrested the 57-year-old. This is the first arrest…

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Chancellor unveils new £9bn retention scheme

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled a new scheme to pay companies £1,000 bonus per employee for those they keep on until January on part pay. Sunak said if employers bring back all nine million people who have been furloughed, this will be a “£9bn policy to retain people in work”.…

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High street retailers ‘urgently’ need government recovery plan, says Usdaw

Shopworkers union Usdaw has urged the government to agree with employers and trade unions a recovery plan for the high street as “thousands of further job losses are announced”. The union said the scale of job losses across the retail industry is “accelerating” as the high street continues to struggle…

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Reopening is ‘no magic bullet’ for retail, says BRC

Reopening is “no magic bullet” for retail, the British Retail Consortium has warned despite UK footfall improving since lockdown restrictions were lifted earlier this month. The BRC’s footfall tracker found that UK footfall decreased 53.4% year-on-year during the second week of reopening in England and NI. This is compared to…

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Watches of Switzerland donates £100k to food banks

Watches of Switzerland and Mappin and Webb’s parent group, the Watches of Switzerland group, has donated £100,000 in emergency funds to UK food banks during the Covid-19 crisis.  The group said it recognised an “urgent need” for food bank funding after these facilities faced soaring demands in light of the…

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Guide for ‘considerate shopping’ launched by Usdaw, SRC and the Scottish government

Shopworkers union Usdaw and the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), along with the Scottish government have partnered to launch a five-step guide to encourage “considerate shopping”, as retailers are permitted to re-open their stores from today (29 June). The trade unions said the reopening of non-essential shops marks a “crucial time”…

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