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The news from North America that Hudson’s Bay is looking to acquire Macy’s is just like the good old days. One company buys another vastly larger than itself. And a department store to boot – can this really be happening in 2017? Hudson’s Bay has a market cap of $1.8bn and fancies Macy’s, valued at $9.8bn. As a retailer, Macy’s has been struggling for many years but it has real estate valued at $14bn and the Bay smells a huge opportunity. This is what has made retail so seductive to financial players for years. It’s also helped to create great confusion in which asset strippers have often been assumed to be great retailers when in reality, they were just great asset strippers.

The overarching structural factor driving retail change today is overcapacity – an excess of supply over demand. For years this was all about real estate but latterly, it’s been more about digital. There is far too much physical space and sales productivity per square foot in every Western retail market is falling like a stone. So, given that there is too much of it, surely it must be worth less?

Raising money against overvalued retail property assets is going to be an increasingly high risk business. No doubt banks will be queuing up for a share of the action but overvalued retail balance sheets can’t be ignored forever. Every retailer I know with a store estate has far too many shops. Are they an asset or liability? Most retailers have overvalued property assets and how these companies are valued, particularly by banks, will be based on a traditional view of balance sheet strength. That rear mirror view is obscuring what is really happening out in front.

** We advise retailers on strategy and analytics. We also track promotional activity across the UK’s key retailers. Get in touch for details admin@richardtalksretail.co.uk

This morning’s announcement has surprised everyone and reflects a shift in strategic thinking at Tesco. Previously, it has been looking beyond its backyard. People might think restaurants and coffee shops are close to home but their business models are totally different and not surprisingly, didn’t really work. In fact even Dobbies, the garden centre business and certainly a retailer, proved to sit outside Tesco’s skill set and was sold last year.

The attractions of Booker are clear. Whether the competition authorities will sanction the deal is another matter. History shows that they can sometime adopt rather perverse definitions of markets, betraying an inability to fully understand how the people they are meant to be acting for (shoppers/consumers) actually behave. This instance should be easier than many – Tesco already has a huge share of the convenience market and this would give them a substantially bigger one. It would also give the company considerable influence over independent retailers. Some of these might think they didn’t sign up to this and rail against the idea.

Perhaps the most intriguing question raised by this deal, if it happens, is what happens to Charles Wilson, CEO of Booker? In a retail era where leadership has been dumbed down and true commercial skills have become a rarity, Charles Wilson is truly outstanding. He has a unique combination of strategic and operational skills coupled with a tiny ego which lets him put the business and its needs before all others. He is a leader who can truly transform any business – just look at what he has achieved with Booker.

** We advise retailers on strategy and analytics. We also track promotional activity across the UK’s key retailers. Get in touch for details admin@richardtalksretail.co.uk

Every year history repeats itself. Christmas trading is talked up, a stream of statements gradually emerge, and they are mostly misinterpreted. This year is no exception. These statements at headline level are about as indicative of where we really are and might be soon as the Premier League Table is after two games at the start of the season.

Christmas trading statements are unaudited and produced internally. I’m not suggesting that they are simply made up – God forbid!! However, there is latitude to adopt a flexible approach with definitions and timeframes. And there is massive pressure to deliver what a company’s stakeholders want to see. Goalposts are regularly picked up and plonked down in a different spot. Definitions and timeframes can be adjusted to suit.

Beyond this, the obsession with year-on-year comparisons has encouraged most people to look at the headline percentage figures, and ignore the absolute numbers on which they are based. So Next’s numbers last week have been massively misread. That’s not to say they were not poor and disappointing. However, Next is still light years ahead of its peer group on virtually every issue that counts, and when it comes to its future trading performance, that point is by far the most critical. There will be quite a few retailers posting numbers far better than Next’s. Don’t be fooled by the packaging and look at the contents!

** We advise retailers on strategy and analytics. We also track promotional activity across the UK’s key retailers. Get in touch for details admin@richardtalksretail.co.uk

So that was 2016. Most retail CEOs I talk to tell me this has been the toughest they have ever known. I wish I could offer some comfort about next year but overwhelming evidence says it will be even tougher. Cost pressures will be carried forward from 2016, fuelled by a full year of National Living Wage, Apprenticeship Levy and business rates increases. Then on top will come the impact from sterling depreciation, kicking in as currency hedging runs out.

The past 30 months have seen growing overcapacity. With costs growing and sales flat, oversupply has prevented retailers passing the pressure onto customers. Against that background, I can’t see shoppers paying the price of a cheaper pound in 2017. With everyone’s hedging being different, so too will be the pressure to raise prices. This will be a source of magnified competitive advantage, and disadvantage. When my hedging runs out and my costs rise 10/12/15%, of course I can put up my prices. However, if my rival is still protected, most of my customers will migrate next door. Making price rises stick will extraordinarily difficult. Especially after years of back to back discounting, teaching customers to shop on price.

Nor will the industry be helped by consumer spending growth. Demand is likely to be flat next year. Against this background I am forecasting a restructuring of the industry, with a growing number of failures. However, adversity always creates opportunities. This market will widen the gap between the strong and the also rans. Those with brand and price integrity will still make money, at the expense of the weak. Those without too many stores and with tightly managed SKU counts, focused on serving their defined core customers and not chasing peripheral sales will emerge in better shape. It might sound blinding obvious but those companies good at retailing will win. There are many who have forgotten how to retail, and they will struggle.

** We advise retailers on strategy and analytics. We also track promotional activity across the UK’s key retailers. Get in touch for details admin@richardtalksretail.co.uk

With just a few days left the retail die is cast. Christmas this year will have been far from a disaster, but not far enough to provide much if any comfort to the industry. I spend much of my time talking to CEOs and leadership teams. The consensus view is that 2016 was the toughest year they have ever known. There are a whole range of reasons why but a fundamental factor is the effect that a constant diet of discounting is having. This is the most price-driven market Britain has ever seen.

Promotions are not being driven by customers but by retailers. I have written at length about overcapacity but the industry is not simply devaluing prices but its proposition. Most of what we buy we do not need. We are inspired and persuaded to want and to reward ourselves through buying. When the price of the item in question is lowered, so too is its value.

This is happening throughout the year but never more so than in the “Golden Quarter”. And here, the industry has been guilty of a failure to understand the consequences of its actions. Black Friday sucks business from December into November, at discounted prices. December has been losing share of the total year sales pie since 2013, and I expect it to record its lowest yet at 12% for this year. Had the industry managed to hit the levels of 2013 this year it would have added £2.4bn to Christmas sales revenues.

Managing promotions more effectively in 2017 will be a major influence on retailers’ performance. A number are biting the bullet. Some of the food majors, fashion businesses like Jigsaw and Fat Face, while M&S and Debenhams are trying to reduce discount days. We are planning to launch some services in due course around tracking, benchmarking and optimisation. Get in touch for more information.

** We advise retailers on strategy, analytics and track promotional activity across the UK’s key retailers. Get in touch for details admin@richardtalksretail.co.uk