nickshanagher

This week's launch of i in the UK has received a broadly favourable welcome from the experts - buyers of advertising space and media planners - and a cautious welcome from news retailers. Taking a leaf from the Bauer book of launching to a mass market, the paper has offered retailers double margin for the first week and flooded the market with more than 100,000 free copies for the first two weeks - distributed in the evening. This tactic still seems to have wrong-footed some local retailers, who have withheld support from the newspaper because they simply do not trust publishers to treat them straight. However, it is probably a better rule of thumb for retailers to be positive about all launches because the ones that interest shoppers are ones that they should want to take part in. As it is half term, I was on holiday on Tuesday and it was interesting that a number of people mentioned the launch to me, suggesting that the Independent's marketing had worked in terms of...

Local retailers will be thinking hard about the impact of the government spending review announced last week. The first thing to note is that the government is not cutting spending at all. In fact, as economist Roger Martin-Fagg points out, spending will continue to increase by 5 per cent over the next four years. What may happen, if the economy grows, is that the proportion of the economy that is accounted for by government spending will contract from 47 per cent today to a level of 40 per cent at the same time. For the purpose of comparison, spending was at 37 per cent in 1997 when Labour came to power. According to Mr Martin-Fagg, the current plans will cut spending in around 6 million houses with mortgages by £500 a year over the next four years. On the other hand, if the government did not constrain spending, interest rates would need to rise by 1.5 per cent and that would cost the same householders £900 a year – nearly twice as much. On this simple measure, the spending...

At my company the team on Retail Newsagent, led by editor Lindsay Sharman, unveiled a new look for the weekly magazine last week after eight months of planning, including interviews with hundreds of retailers and advertisers. We realised that what we were doing was similar to what we are telling independent retailers to do - invest in your business. At present, we believe that printed media is still the favourite tool for independent retailers seeking information and trade news. However, we also believe it has to be done well. We have invested in a better paper stock, which makes the magazine easier to read, and the editorial team has worked with the designers to ensure the package is accessable and attractive. The feedback from retailers and suppliers has been fantastic. We held a small launch party for retailers and our trade partners and they applauded Lindsay after her short speech introducing the refresh. "Retail Newsagent has always had fantastic conte...

As industry data appears to show that local shops in the UK are resisting the expansion of the multiple grocers, a possible reason for their success may be contained in an analysis of the problems big banks face written by FT writer Tony Jackson. "Most economic activities work best if people on the ground are free to make decisions," he says. In the world of banks, decision making has been centralised, he argues. As training local people is expensive, the banks prefer to build mathematical models of the world that they can control from the centre. This is why they prefer to invest in mortgages, which can be commoditised, rather than in small businesses, where local knowledge is needed. When the world fails to meet the model, problems arise. This is why banks in the US often do not have proper records of the loans they have made. This is why they cannot tell the difference between someone in a secure job and someone who is just about to be made redundant. "Proper...

Tesco's results today include a figure that shows like-for-like sales in the UK were up 1.2 per cent in the six months to the end of August this year, compared to the same period last year. However, of more interest to local retailers in the conveninence channel is its increased emphasis on opening local shops, which now account for 10 per cent of its selling space. The grocer increased its number of Express c-stores by 53 in the first half and this will increase by 103 in the next six months, with the stores having an average floor space of 2,281 square feet, which equates to more than £57,000 sales a week. At the same time, it is planning 22 more One Stop shops in the second half, with an average floor space of 1,181 square feet, which equates to sales of £14,750 a week. What is the secret? Availability, service and quality, Tesco tells investors. Shopper satisfaction with its availability is the highest ever, it says. 10 million shoppers a week are using self-service check...

John Speakman produced some research in 2008 that showed that people in the UK are exercising as much today as they did 25 years ago and suggesting the only way to fight obesity is to eat less. After a couple of lectures this year, the Aberdeen University professor's work has been back in the news. He found that in the UK the average calorie content of food we buy had increased by 12 per cent over the same period. In the US the rise was 25 per cent. "People would have to exercise for four to five hours a day," he says in order to lose the weight that these extra calories cause. What the food companies put in, they can also take out. Expect major manufacturers to innovate their way back to the calorie content of foods 25 years ago.

"We're blessed with a wonderful business where we sell moments of pleasure at cents a time...billions of times every day," Muhtar Kent, who heads Coca-Cola, tells the Financial Times. I have cut the quote in half because the first half is what lots of local retailers are in the business of providing in the CTN market. CTN, which stands for confectionery tobacco newsagent, is a specific term that covers a loose style of retailing where people make frequent out-of-pocket purchases. In the modern convenience store, CTN is a major category alongside top-up shopping, food to go and a food for later offering (fresh and chilled). Mr Kent is clear that selling moments of pleasure for cents at a time is a recession proof business - provided you have enough scale. Most local shop owners recognise that they are in the pennies business, needing to build sales volumes. A second theme is his commitment to investment in the future of the business. It is why Coke has supported the ...