'Stability' on the High Street
THERE is a "degree of stability on the High Street" in the Peterborough area with no dramatic changes over the last month.
THERE is a "degree of stability on the High Street" in the Peterborough area with no dramatic changes over the last month.That’s the “experience” of Barclay Commercial Bank West Anglia, but those areas exposed to the housing market continue to experience difficult trading conditions, although the reasonable spring weather has given a boost to DIY and garden centres.
Relationship director for retail and wholesale at the bank Paul Glossop added that the Government-sponsored vehicle scrappage scheme seems to have provided a modest, but noticeable, boost to new vehicle sales, and an increase in used vehicle values evidences better than expected performance in this area.
Mr Glossop was responding to the recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) retail sales figures for May 2009, which he said were in a “holding pattern.”
“With a slight fall in May and growth in the past three months compared to a year earlier continuing to slow, expectations of a positive increase this month have not been met.
“However, looking at the numbers over the past nine months, evidence suggests that retail sales numbers are moving sideways.”
He added: “A re-invigorated supply chain has not meant that retailers are losing track of the need to follow lessons learned in recent months, and stock levels remain well controlled.
“The need for aggressive marketing and wide-scale reductions called for in post-Christmas sales will not be requisite in the summer sale season now upon us as retailers mark a return to business as usual.”
Firms ‘are not cutting costs’
BUSINESSES are missing a major opportunity to reduce their business expenditure and retain profit during the current recession, according to new research conducted by YouGov.
Is your Business COSTING you? gained insights on business expenditure management from board directors and senior managers.
A significant proportion of companies are failing to increase their bottom lines through neglecting their cost base, so much so that more than a half (54 per cent) of the 90 respondents felt they could achieve cost savings of six per cent or more.
Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) said that their organisations had not put in place any cost-reduction programmes during the last six months since the start of the recession for main business expense items.
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Weather for Peterborough
Monday 15 March 2010
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Sunny spells
Temperature: 2 C - 8 C
Wind Speed: 14 Knots
Wind direction: North west
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Temperature: 2 C - 10 C
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