ReThink Productivity Podcast
In this exciting podcast, Simon Hedaux from ReThink Productivity shares his insights and strategies for improving productivity and efficiency in the retail and hospitality industries. With the help of clients, partners, and the ReThink team, Simon covers everything from measuring and tracking productivity to developing and implementing effective strategies.
Whether you're a business owner, manager, or employee, this podcast is a must-listen for anyone who wants to learn how to get more done and improve their bottom line.
Here's what you can expect to learn:
- How to measure and track productivity
- Proven strategies for improving efficiency and reducing waste
- How to create a culture of productivity and innovation
- Tips for motivating and engaging your team
- Real-world examples of how other businesses have used ReThink Productivity to achieve success
Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from the experts and get ahead of the curve with your own business.
ReThink Productivity Podcast
Footfall Insights April 2025
Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat about footfall trends and shopping behaviours from February to March 2025, focusing on the impact of Easter timing differences on year-over-year comparisons. The conversation explores how footfall, consumer confidence, and inflation metrics are painting a complex picture of the retail landscape with some sectors showing signs of recovery despite challenging conditions
• Footfall into stores down 5.4% overall and 4% in high streets (comparing non-Easter March 2025 vs Easter March 2024)
• Food and drink spending dropped 6.3% this March compared to a 9.8% increase last March during Easter
• Fashion sector showing signs of recovery with only a 2.7% decline, better than February's 7.4% drop
• Grocery spending decreased by 5.4% versus a 3.5% rise last March due to Easter timing
• Consumer confidence slightly improved from -20% to -19%, with better outlook on general economic situation
• Inflation dropped to 2.6% in March (from 2.8% in February), with clothing at just 1.1% inflation
• Hospitality remains challenging with high inflation at 4.22%, affected by labour costs and minimum wage increases
• Upcoming National Insurance payment increases likely to impact businesses and consumer spending patterns
• Next month's data will show the combined impact of the Easter shift and provide clearer year-over-year comparison
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Welcome to the Productivity Podcast. Diane Wohl, CEO at Rendall Intelligence and Insights, joins me for our monthly chat and we are looking at February 2025 to March 2025. Hi, Diane.
Speaker 2:Hi Simon.
Speaker 1:How are you All refreshed from holiday?
Speaker 2:I am, I am. I am pleased to be back, although it was a great time in the US and the southern states. It was fabulous.
Speaker 1:Good and hopefully you brought back some good news with you yeah, some prospectively good news.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think we're sitting at the tipping point.
Speaker 2:So March, of course, this year we're comparing against an Easter month last year so it was non Easter this year versus Easter last year, so that has had an impact on both footfall and sales, somewhat inevitably. So footfall, according to Sensomatic and this is footfall into stores was down 5.4% and down 4% in high streets in March and that's very close to the results from Beauclair, who track high street spending. And that was down 4.6% annually in March. So, again, as I said, comparing March this year, which wasn't Easter, versus March last year that was Easter. So yes, so it was down, but that's of course explainable, but there's been, you know, there were some key hits on certain sectors in terms of spending that drove that result.
Speaker 2:So food and drink was hit this March, dropped by 6.3% because of course we didn't have the hospitality spend that we would over an Easter period, whereas last March, which included Easter, hospitality, food and drink went up by 9.8% annually. So you can see the difference. On the good news front, fashion, which has been a bit of a nemesis for retail over the last few months, whilst not great, still negative at 2.7% drop from March last year. That's a better result than February when it dropped by 7.4% and actually a better result than March last year when it dropped by 4.2%. So we perhaps are seeing some inklings of a recovery in the fashion sector.
Speaker 2:That's good it is good, isn't it? And then grocery, of course, was hit this March because people weren't buying Easter Sunday lunch this March. So grocery dropped by 5.4% that's grocery spending versus a rise of 3.5% last March. So really, the results we're seeing are the impact of this non-Easter versus an Easter month. So fingers crossed we see that swing come back.
Speaker 1:yes, I mean, hopefully it will bode well for april, when, of course, we have easter in there. So so tricky, tricky month to gauge, but not not a disaster in a non-like for like comparison. Good news for fashion. What about things like consumer confidence? Because I know we've talked about that before as well and that had taken a real negative turn.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean there's been a little sort of improvement at the edges with consumer confidence. We're not seeing any great massive recovery. It edged up a little bit. So GFK's consumer confidence index score moved from minus 20 in February to minus 19 in March, so a slight improvement. And, interestingly, all of the improvement was in how people feel about the general economic situation over the next year and over the last year. So there's an index specifically for what people feel is going to happen over the next 12 months and that index score rose from minus 31 in February to minus 29 in March. It's a slight improvement. But we've got to put it into context because in June last year we were looking at an index score for that economic situation minus 11. So we are a long way off that now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and is that any linkages to inflation? I know there was kind of some potentially lower than expected results, but how does that span across the different sectors?
Speaker 2:Well, I haven't run a correlation between inflation and confidence, but inflation has reduced. So in March CPI was down 2.6%, down from 2.8% in February and 3% in January, so it's the lowest it's been this year and actually the inflation has been lower on some of the key sectors that really impact the high street clothing and footwear inflation is sitting at 1.1%, which is really quite low actually. And also you know you know utilities home utilities, housing, water, electricity, gas, etc. At 1.8. So they're doing not so bad. Clothing and footwear is online with major, it's online with the CPI at 2.6. So you know we're seeing, you know, good, steady results. The fly in the ointment really is restaurants and hotels or hospitality, and that's inflationary at 4.22 percent still. So it's still high, um. So that really is going to impact what people want to yeah, prices in for meals out and drinks out, and what people are going to want to spend their money on I assume that's driven by their costs in terms of raw ingredients and things and, potentially, scarcity of labor absolutely.
Speaker 2:yeah, I, you're paying more salary. You know. The key factors there, of course, are apart from rent and fixed costs is labour and raw materials. And labour, as we know, has gone up with the increase in the minimum wage and we're looking we're standing at the precipice of an increase in NI payments as well, so that's going to push it up even further, I would imagine.
Speaker 1:Yeah so, and NI payments as well. So that's going to push it up even further, I would imagine. Yeah, so I mean next month will be interesting to see looking across kind of March and April, if overall we're up based on Easter, switching months as it kind of tends to do, depending on where it falls in the year, but also probably not till May, will we really see the impact of the NI, because at the time of recording it's live, but really people's payroll won't run until the end of April, which will be their first view of how close they're forecasting and a mass word to what's actually going to get paid out and that might not then come through into any figures until May.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just whether people are anticipating it and trying to put their prices up a little earlier than they than they possibly would do, because it's in the news and people know about it and people sort of expecting it almost. Um. So but I think we'll see. As you say, we'll see the major impact in the next couple of months definitely yeah, and we'll see where the um consumer confidence goes.
Speaker 1:It's. It's interesting, I find it interesting it's kind of dropped by or gone up by five percentage points, even though it's it's interesting. I find it interesting it's kind of dropped by or gone up by five percentage points, even though it's still 29 percentage points negative um, based on the fact that I'm no clearer on what the world economy is doing and clearly there's key influences out there in in different countries that are pulling some of the strings and I'm not quite sure they're clear either. So it's interesting that people feel more comfortable with it. I don't know what's changed since the last time we've talked.
Speaker 2:Really, yeah, I think there's a little bit more of stability. I think, you know, most consumers do like a sort of stable economic environment and so there's been less news about the domestic economy over the last month, I feel, because of the tariff situation with Trump. So it's less focus on the concerns around the UK economy and more news about the US economy and the worldwide economy and I think people feel that the emphasis has been taken away from the UK economy a little bit and therefore it must be making people a little bit more comfortable.
Speaker 1:Interesting, interesting. Well, I'm sure he's not going to be quiet in the next month before we speak again, so we'll see what, uh, what dramas that that brings to the conversation absolutely absolutely perfect. Appreciate the time again. Great to have an update. Look forward to seeing how easter impacts the, the figures, and hopefully we've got some some good news to share across those two months combined.
Speaker 2:The next time we chat lovely, looking forward to it, simon thank you thanks.
