FSP Retail Pulse - September 2014

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The Retail Pulse FSP Retail Business Consultants September 2014

Retailer Births & Deaths

There were 2 administrations in September: Phones 4 U and Austique.

There were 9 new additions to FSP's Retailer Database in September, with 1 new retailer proposing to open in the UK market: Halford's cycling-only format Cycle Republic.

Retail Burn This month, as usual, the big national chains attract the most press. The most talked about retailers, according to the Retail Burn, include: Aldi, H&M, Jack Wills, Caffe Nero, Strada, Kiddicare, Internacionale, La Senza, Tesco plc and Phones 4 U. The retailer with the highest number of positive news articles in September was Aldi, with plans to open up to 65 new UK stores next year as it revealed UK sales of ÂŁ5.3bn for 2013.

Phones 4 U having fallen into administration following the loss of a number of key contracts resulting in the closure of its 550 stores.

Hot 100

The Hot 100 in September 2014 included; Growing sales and opening new stores, Yours Increasing profits, sales and margin, Dunelm Mill Opened eighth store in Qatar's new Hamad International Airport, WH Smith Travel Retail Launching new cycling-only format in London, Halfords Undergoing major refurbishment programme, Bella Italia Opening on London's Oxford Street, Russell and Bromley Improving profitability, McDonald's Opening new store in Bedford, Warren James These sustainable businesses have substantial sales, a healthy profit and have maintained good financial health.

For more information on the BIS Wealth Creation Index, please e-mail us.

Retail News Index

The FSP Retail News Index is a 3 month moving average measure of sentiment in reported retail news stories.

The September RNI index for All Retailers, at 105, has increased by 1.

Leisure, at 118, has increased by 6.

Clothing & Footwear, at 96, has increased by 3.

Household, at 104, has decreased by 4.

Personal, at 103, has remained steady.

Grocery, at 100, has decreased by 3.

Food & Beverage, at 108, has decreased by 2.

For the full report, click here.

FSP on average reviews over 350 unique items of retailer news. Each article is scored according to sentiment. RNI is the sum of these scores indexed against 2005 and averaged over a three month period. The RNI time series for all retailers starts from May 2002.

Product Focus Retailer Risk Analysis After coming clean about its accounting problems, Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent rebuffed criticism that he should have discovered the issue sooner. "Things are always unnoticed until they have been noticed." he said.

An interesting comment from the Tesco chairman. At FSP we would argue that the best way to notice things is to look for them!

We wouldn’t claim that we could have spotted the accounting discrepancies at Tesco, but at FSP we do pride ourselves on being inquisitive and using research coupled with almost 40 years of consulting experience to make informed recommendations to our clients.

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Retail Pulse data derived from Snap-Shop.co.uk 01494 474740 fspretail@fspretail.com If you no longer wish to receive the Retail Pulse from FSP, you can unsubscribe here