Industry News

August 3, 2012 The Age ·While shopping, if you’ve felt that big business just keeps getting bigger, your instincts would be right. ·Over the past four years, small businesses market share dropped from 39.5 per cent to 36.5 per cent in the $252 billion industry, according to a report from Morgan Stanley equities research. “The weak retail environment is having a disproportionately large impact on smaller retailers,” said Morgan Stanley Australia equities analyst Thomas Kierath. Looking at retail downturn during the late 1990s showed that larger grocery and food and clothing companies took “considerable” market share from smaller players – “and this share doesn’t come back,” the report said. The advantage larger players such as Woolworths, Coles, Myer and David Jones have suggests they would emerge from the current retail slump in “far stronger market positions,’’ helped by lower costs and better distribution networks. Retail sales rose 1 per cent…

August 5, 2012 The Age British retailer Tesco will start offering mortgages to customers with a 20 per cent deposit. The interest rates offered will range from 3.19 per cent for a two-year fixed deal to 4.69 per cent for a five-year tracker mortgage, the company said on its website. The mortgages will be available from August 6 and will also give customers the option of taking monthly repayment holidays each year. ”Entering the mortgage market is a significant step in broadening the products we offer to Tesco customers,” Tesco Bank chief executive Benny Higgins, said. Read more:

Mark Kenny August 05, 2012 AdelaideNow SOUTH Australian consumers pay at least 20c more for some beer, soft drink and bottled water because of container deposit legislation, research shows. The higher prices are being used as an argument against a national container deposit scheme which could be agreed to by state and federal governments this month. Beverages companies say a national scheme would be costly to run and would send prices higher for ordinary families. However, new research conducted by the Boomerang Alliance – a peak body of environment groups committed to reducing waste – suggests that three of the six main beverage companies are using SA and NT container deposit schemes to charge more for popular brands such as Coca Cola, Coke Zero, and Mount Franklin water. The study compared 20 common bottles for sale online by Coles in Adelaide, Darwin, Perth and Sydney and found the drinks cost…

Larissa Ham August 6, 2012 The Age Steve Wright, executive director of the Franchise Council of Australia said that while he noted the internet could pose a concern for franchisees, it was more likely to open up new avenues for selling. YOU spend thousands of dollars on a franchise, only to discover your franchisor is about to sell the same products or services online. How would you feel? Worried no doubt. It’s an issue the sector is grappling with, as franchisors seek to move with the times without stepping on their franchisees’ interests. ”Franchising’s a classic one because over time the idea of a geographical territory could become superfluous,” said the deputy chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Dr Michael Schaper. ”What happens when you’ve got a commodity you need to physically distribute but you don’t need a face-to-face presence … what happens to the franchisees? ”Even if…

Aug 03, 2012 CSNews CHICAGO — As convenience retailers look to a future with smaller stores and a rapidly changing consumer, challenges and opportunities abound, Renee Sang, senior director, Global Customer Innovation Network, at Accenture, said in the AWMA C-Metrics Convenience Industry Outlook Forum’s opening session. “Retailers are saying their store footprints are going to get smaller,” she said, noting the challenges this portends for operators as they manage product assortment to maximize profit from those small store spaces. At the same time, she said consumers are increasingly becoming tech savvy and using applications (apps) on their smartphones to make buying decisions, both through price and product comparisons and by following recommendations of friends in their social network that can be accessed simply by using the phone to scan a barcode. Today’s consumer, Sang explained, is always online, so it is possible to leverage that trend to engage them to…