The UK retail market is undergoing fundamental changes. These changes are often described as a 'perfect storm', a phrase usually taken to mean that an unusual or rare combination of unfavourable circumstances has produced a particularly turbulent outcome.
In this special report we show that no one factor alone can be blamed for recent retail failures, and that while ecommerce growth is an important influence, cyclical factors have typically been underemphasised.
We explore:
- The main factors likely to have had an impact on retail performance over the last decade, including the main structural, cyclical, and temporary factors – amongst them, Brexit
- How retailers have actually reacted to this blizzard of challenges
- The impact of the Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) process on retail portfolios, looking at a sample of 1400 store decisions across the UK under recent CVAs
- Lessons for retailers and retail landlords from recent failures