nickshanagher

While the Grocer indulged in its usual agenda of knocking CTNs through the medium of Jerry Marwood, boss of Spar, two week's ago, his rather more insightful interview in the same issue provides two thoughts for local retailers. The first is that the "one-trick pony" is dead in the retail water, by which Mr Marwood means that retailers who buy an off-licence or a newsagent cannot expect to make a living on its core product range. This is not news. It was true that until the mid 1990s you could make a very good living on just selling confectionery news tobacco (CTN) or beers wines and spirits (BWS). It is also not news because both shop formats are in decline. Combined they account for fewer than 7.8 per cent of outlets. C-stores account for 44 per cent. It is also not news because the stores that remain are increasingly in locations where the business model makes sense - by travel points for example. However, the CTN owners and off-licence operators of the 1990s...