Simon Harrison

As a retail expert I discussed whether John Lewis & Partners can reverse its fortunes with Drapers news editor Elizabeth Howlett: There's a long road ahead, however, with current turnaround efforts expected to take until 2027/28 to bear fruit. John Lewis's interim results, released on 14 September 2023, painted a bleak financial picture for the retailer as operating profit declined by 6% year on year to £277.1m for the 26 weeks ended 29 July. Its losses narrowed by 14% year on year to £57.3m in the period. “The question is whether John Lewis is going the same direction as Allders, Arcadia Group, Debenhams and House of Fraser,” said Andrew Pepper, partner at business advisory RESOLVE.  (I was Administrator of Allders and advised the lenders on House of Fraser. I see lots of similarities.) “They will look at their property portfolio and look at their most successful premises and their least and explore if there is a way to right size its portfolio to be smaller on footprint, but more profitable.”   Pepper also pointed out that strong staff loyalty has some disadvantages. The partnership currently has a score of 3.8 out of 5 on open company review platform Glassdoor, with 70% of the 4,451 anonymous reviews from current and former employees recommending the company to others, with many citing good wages and employee benefits. While this has been a huge benefit to John Lewis over the years, as it has likely meant lower staff turnover and a good employer brand reputation, it could also mean larger redundancy packages. “John Lewis [and Waitrose] is a lovely place to work, so they likely had good redundancy terms and had people who had worked there for 20 years. Unlike other retailers, the movement of staff through [John Lewis] likely isn't that much,” explained Pepper. “By implication that means you have lots of people working there for 10-20 years, and the [redundancy] cost will be disproportionately higher.” Read more via Drapers, below. https://lnkd.in/eD5JPxHx #ForwardWithReSolve #privateequity #debtfinancing #thebodyshop #restructuring #administration Turnaround Management Association (TMA UK) Institute of Directors (IoD) R3 Association of Business Recovery Professionals Richard Obank Retail Trust #turnaround UK Government Investments (UKGI) Foot Anstey LLP M&G plc Barings BlackRock Russell Jarvis Evelyn Partners Philip Kirkpatrick Kirkland & Ellis Close Brothers Arbuthnot Latham Bank Leumi בנק לאומי UK PNC Metro Bank (UK) Santander HSBC RESOLVE Maddox Legal Limited CMS UK Shawbrook Bank ABN AMRO Commercial Finance Praetura Commercial Finance Arnold Vos Retail Realisation Rothschild & Co #venturecapital Bantry Bay Andrew Buchanan Buchanan #retail British Land Mike Thompson MBE @CVC Capital Partners #ForwardWithReSolve #retailnews #turnaround

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🚨 Retail Leaders: Ready to Set 2025 Up for Success? Join us on Tuesday, 19th November at 11:30am for The Ultimate Planning Guide for 2025! 🗓️ This free 30-minute webinar will help you: ✅ Reflect on what worked (and didn’t) in 2024 ✅ Prioritise what matters for 2025 ✅ Set realistic, achievable goals you’ll stick to It’s designed for busy retail leaders who want to start the year with clarity, focus, and a practical plan—even if planning isn't your thing! 🧩 Don't wait until January to get organised—your success in 2025 starts now! 🚀 🔗 Register now: https://bit.ly/3YsoOUq #RetailLeadership #RetailSuccess #RetailStrategy #RetailGoals #ProjectManagement #SystemUpgrades #2025Planning #RetailSystems #Planning #TeamCollaboration #BusinessGrowth #6RRetail #RetailManagement #StrategicPlanning #BusinessPlanning #Leadership #RetailIndustry #BusinessConsulting

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Whilst it feels chilly over the last few days in the UK it is reported that retailers can expect more favorable weather this December compared to last year. This will undoubtedly boost demand for seasonal products as everyone starts to enjoy the approach to their christmas festivities! Last year's December was abnormally warm outside of Scotland, with England and Wales equalling the 5th warmest on record. Unsettled conditions and heavy rainfall (8th wettest on record for the UK) further hindered footfall and sales (this continues in some parts of the UK this year too). This December whilst forecast to be warmer, @Planalytics expects a more favourable climate for retailers, with temperatures still helping to lift year-over-year performance for winter wardrobe products such as knitwear, outerwear, and boots as well as comfort items including hot cereal, soup, hot chocolate, blankets, heaters, and more.

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Allan Leighton returns to Asda. Former legendary boss appointed executive chairman to turn around the struggling retailer. Leighton also served as president of Canadian Loblaw Companies Limited and chairman of Britain's Co-op and the Royal Mail. Will be watching with genuine curiosity the developments at ASDA. Are retail best practices universal over time? Can what delivered 2 decades ago still deliver today? Are talent and leadership subject to change? If so how? Impact of changed environment on leadership? A lot of pros and cons. Legacy experience applied in modern reality vs universal fundamentals of leadership? One thing for sure - UK grocery retail just got whole lot interesting. #retaildemocratization https://lnkd.in/gxjfdeQZ

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Victoria Ward has written an interesting article here about the difference between a Merchandise Strategy and a Merchandise Plan and why retailers need both to succeed https://lnkd.in/eR5dPH9U

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H&M is supporting the British Retail Consortium in its calls to HM Treasury to address the sheer scale of new costs proposed to retail businesses - one of the highest taxed business sectors. The cumulative costs and the speed at which they will impact businesses is hugely concerning and we hope to see continued dialogue that might enable businesses to have more time to address these changes. https://lnkd.in/etRZDiN9

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Retail is a tough business, and just being a big brand certainly does not make you immune from adversity. I'm sure we can all think of examples of big companies that have fallen into distress. So I'm delighted to be catching up with retail expert Rhea Fox on my podcast to uncover the essential lessons from struggling and failing retailers. Tune in - episode 322 of the Retail Transformation Show. Together, we explore the common challenges that distressed businesses face, the warning signs that often go unnoticed, and the root causes of financial difficulties. Whether you're looking to spot risks early, turn around a struggling operation, or avoid these pitfalls altogether, this episode offers invaluable insights into navigating the complexities of retail in uncertain times. Enjoy listening! #retail #retailtransformation

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As the weather now starts to turn more towards Autumn in the UK this can often prove challenging for retailers to adapt to. As we know managing the impact of #weather and simply having an actionable plan can drive significant and sustainable improvements to profitability. Some common, easy to employ use cases are helpful to ensure you have enough inventory where weather-driven demand (WDD) is favorable, and optimise the cadence and depth of markdowns. BearingPoint leverages weather-driven demand analytics from @Planalytics in its Connected Planning offering. If your business is impacted by the weather, please reach out to proactively manage the opportunities and risks of weather volatility.

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We've been anticipating a tipping point in retailers squeezing suppliers. UK suppliers refusing to pay huge data fees indicate a shift. A leading brand's response reported by The Grocer: “A strange way to try and make money. They should stick to putting things on shelf and selling them,”. In the SA FMCG market, there is an emergence of retailer data being repositioned in tiered packages - some suppliers also refuse to pay up. Trade Intelligence #retailnews #retailtrends #retail #fmcg #fmcgindustry #cpg #cpgindustry

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Time for political change? Time for retail to back ourselves? Read my thoughts on the next phase of our election strategy in today's article for Retail Week where I call on retailers to come together and share more of the positive stories about how the reach and scale of retail can drive positive change. With the right policies and right relationship with a future government we can achieve so much more!! #BuyIntoRetail🛍️ #BritishRetailConsortium #Retail #UKElection #EverywhereEconomy 

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Retail sales in the UK blew past expectations in August, climbing to their highest level since July 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Sales were up one per cent compared to the previous month, beating analysts’ predictions of a 0.4 per cent rise. The increase builds on July’s return to growth, which saw a 0.5 per cent rebound after previous declines. Despite encouraging retail figures, the collapse in consumer confidence for September has raised alarm bells across the UK economy. According to GfK’s consumer confidence measure, sentiment plummeted to -20 from -13 in August, the lowest level since March. Perhaps the prospect of a tough budget on October 30, which could include tax increases, is further unsettling the public. https://lnkd.in/ewn7VuNv

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Yesterday Claire, our Global Retail Director and I hosted a small group of UK&I shop managers at a customer service development session. We spent the first half of the day exploring retailers that are nailing aspects of the customer experience. Hamleys of London to show the positive impact product demonstrations have on the customers journey. the LEGO Group to show the influence furniture and shop design can have on customer flow and dwell time. And we may be biased but of course we couldn’t not visit our London anchor shop on Oxford St 🌟 There was a beautiful mixture of staff led interactions as well as self led exploration. To the customer who was styling their hair using our styling products, I can’t wait to hear what you think of them😍 After lunch we debriefed and thought about what experience do LUSH customers want when they visit one of our shops. Appreciating that a customer in Oxford St might be expecting something different to those in Manchester. How are we creating a sense of awe and wonder in our shops? How do staff facilitate their customers’ expectations? How is the layout set up to positively impact their experience? Are we facilitating enough spaces in our shops to encourage customers to explore our products? Are our staff set up to enhance the experience further? So many great discussion points were had. Very excited to hear how you all take this back to your shops and the impact you see! This wasn’t a classic, classroom style training session, at Lush we love to utilise different formats to keep things interesting. What’s your favourite format for training and development? #customerservice #retail #customerexperience

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🔶TheShopTalks🔶 One weekend, my friend Rakesh and his son, Rishi, strolled through a bustling marketplace, to buy a set of new school uniform. Two clothing shops caught their eye. The first, bold and bright, lured shoppers in with huge discount signs plastered across the windows.  The second shop, though less flashy, seemed to have more customers. Curious, they stopped to take a closer look. Rakesh, always practical, pointed to the discount shop. "Let’s go there, Rishi. We’ll save some money." But Rishi, intrigued by the crowd at the other shop, had a different view. "Dad, why don’t we try that one? They may not have discounts, but they seem to have more customers." After a little more convincing, Rakesh agreed, and they stepped into the second shop. No discounts were advertised, but the salesperson’s words struck a chord: "Each unit here comes with a six-month replaceable warranty. We use high quality fabric and use double stitching. We promise quality that lasts, the other shop won’t" Rakesh glanced at Rishi, realizing the value beyond the price tag. This experience got me thinking: However it may be a small experience but it resonates with lot of us while shopping. *Price vs Quality Conundrum 1)what does a customer prioritize in a buying decision? Rakesh shared this experience and told that major factor in deciding was the quality as past experience was not good . Also, a bit of FOMO to try the shop with more customers. "In the race for customers, the true winner is value—not just low prices, but quality, trust, and reliability wrapped into one." 2)What does a retailer prioritize in selling proposition? In this case, what was the retailer's driving key to risk the fixed price or premium in the highly competitive market and survive? Was it, the decision of NOT TO enter the never ending discounting war? Rakesh said, the retailer was empowered to risk the decision and position a differentiation with promising quality. I thought he was right. Strategy is actually a combination of what you decide TO DO and what you decide NOT TO DO. Further, empowerement to decide that, is the key. Deciding what not to do is perhaps more important than deciding what to do because it creates clear boundaries around your business model. Fundamentally, you have to let other businesses win most battles as you can only pick a few battles to win them with all your might. "In the world of retail, you can chase the lowest price or champion the highest quality—both is a path to mediocrity. Choose your focus, and let it define your brand." Amazon’s eCommerce business is a cost-focused business working on razor-thin profit margins. Bezos famously said “Your margin is my opportunity”.  However, their other business, Amazon Web Services, is focused on building a highly differentiated cloud computing platform, and therefore it enjoys double digit margins for Amazon. When it comes to shopping or retail, what’s your go-to move? #TheShopTalks

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Today, we announced Asda’s trading update for the first quarter of this year, with total revenues increased by 6.6% to £5.3bn (excl. fuel) and like-for-like sales up 1.4%. We’re pleased to see continued growth across our food and non-food businesses during the quarter, which clearly demonstrates our underlying strength as a business. In the first quarter, our focus has remained on delivering uncompromising value for customers. We became the first supermarket to price match both Aldi and Lidl, have continued to cut prices on hundreds of products, and have seen our Asda Rewards loyalty scheme continue to resonate with shoppers. George at Asda has also led the way in outperforming the fashion and homewares markets, as customers continue to respond positively to the investments made in the brand. We are proud to have become the highest paying traditional supermarket with a record £150m investment in retail pay this quarter, as we continue to invest in our hard-working colleagues. Net leverage as a multiple of proforma EBITDA after rent reduced from 4.1x at Q1 2023 to 3.0x at the end of Q1 2024 – and earlier this month, we successfully refinanced more than £3.0bn of debt, extending our debt obligations into the next decade. This further strengthens our capital structure, enabling us to continue investing in our business and deliver our ambitious long-term growth plans. You can find the full results here:

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We’ve set up a new store operating model for one of the fastest growing retailers in the UK. Zero capex. People & culture focused. All about the ‘why.’ Clear, consistent leadership. Our model delivers demonstrably better availability through better process, fuller stores and industry leading stock accuracy. We’ve inherited everything & haven’t needed our own IT platforms or other ‘systems’ to unlock better process. The answers are often within and we’ve worked with numerous internal folks to ‘convert’ them to the new way. Accuracy is Accuracy! We’ve approached things very differently; fixed the basics and have moved away from ‘aimlessly prescriptive retailing.’ No digital ‘eye in the sky’ checklists so we fool ourselves that things are being done. Very few lead indicators actually. The biggest progress marker? ‘Control’ That’s a hard sell to anyone. Do this & ‘You’ll be in control.’ But now? The store will all tell you that they like being in control and that process adherence is everything. No cheat codes! It’s a hell of a story and one I doubt will be replicated anywhere in the world of retail. I’d be more than happy to take you through it and understand if we could land change in your organisation too. #retail #operations #basics #commonthings

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Impact of Cost of living on customers spending behaviours With prices rising, customers are continuing to manage their spend by pulling back on non-essentials. Many retailers are feeling the pressure, particularly those that appeal to younger shoppers, who are the hardest hit. Please reach out if you need a deeper understanding of your customers behaviour within the wider market. Simon Johnson, John Affleck, Tom Pinnell, Utsav Nag, Louise Carter Full report: https://lnkd.in/gpwRU5-n Summary of findings: https://lnkd.in/g6DAxkFb

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Footfall is a good barometer to track the health of Retail and last week we saw a modest rise across all UK Retail destinations when compared with the week before, but the year-on-year comparatives are more challenging where we saw a 4% drop. We know eCommerce has flattened out as a % of total sales, so it’s not the case customers are migrating more and more to online shopping. In fact shops still make up 75% of all Retail sales. Shopping Centres were the most adversely affected with fewer customers vs last year at -6%. The Retail Parks performing the best at -1.4%.   If you remember last year was fuelled by an earlier Easter followed by the early May Day Bank Holiday. The Kings Coronation helped to encourage us to shop too as well as give the leisure and hospitality sectors a lift but sadly the evolution of the monarchy is out of our control! The Marathon helped to boost footfall in London with footfall increasing 5% week on week. Wales on the other hand seeing the highest declines vs last year of 8%. I still believe Retailers can do more to convert footfall into actually buying. In my career I have seen conversion rates from as low as 15% to as high as 85% depending on the sector with significant variation at store level even though the range, pricing and proposition is essentially the same. We are probably better off to focus on the things we can control rather than those we cannot. Similarly increasing the basket should be in our gift to some extent. Enticing promotions as well as multibuys and effective customer engagement can all help to add that one extra item in the basket.

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"Why the next government helping retail is good for the whole country" 🙌 Check out my opinion piece published by Retail Week on what I think the next government could be doing to support the retail industry and those who work in it. What would you add to the list? #election2024 #supportretail #retailindustry

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Physical stores form a crucial part of an omnichannel offering and there are plenty of examples where shops boost performance across other channels. Yet, whilst there are plenty of advantages to omnichannel, there are also quite a lot of pitfalls that are easy to make and can leave customers feeling confused and frustrated. I am excited to be on the Keep Optimising Marketing Podcast with Chloë Thomas to discuss all of this and much more. The episode called: "Harnessing Physical Retail for eCommerce Success" Listen now on your usual podcast app or at https://lnkd.in/eZsvJqEW Thanks for having me on Chloë 🙌 #retail #omnichannel #retailtransformation

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