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 August 2025
Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat about footfall trends. July retail data shows positive signs with spending down only 1.4% compared to 8.5% in June, though footfall decreased by 1.7% as consumers remain cautious with their spending. The warm weather has encouraged more UK residents to holiday at home, redirecting spending into local economies rather than abroad.
• Five key retail sectors (fashion, food and drink, general retail, grocery, health and beauty) all showed improvement in July
• Fashion rebounded from being 10.8% down in June to just 3.2% down in July
• Employment is up 0.7% year-on-year to 4.7%, with youth unemployment rising 14.1%
• Interest rate reductions benefit mortgage holders but impact savers
• The approaching "Golden Quarter" (Halloween through Christmas) will be challenging but crucial
• Early and extended discounting is likely as retailers may over-order based on July's improved performance
• Weather continues to be a significant factor in retail performance
Looking ahead to August, if the good weather continues and staycations remain popular, we might see further improvements in retail spending figures
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Welcome to the Productivity Podcast. I'm delighted to be joined by Dan Wells, CEO at Rendell Intelligence and Insights, again for our monthly chat. Hi, Dan.
Speaker 2:Simon, how are?
Speaker 1:you doing.
Speaker 2:I'm very well. How are you?
Speaker 1:Good, thank you Good. I enjoyed some at the time of recording some really nice weather, so it always makes you feel better, which is hopefully what we'll find in the results.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do have some more positive news for you. I know we've been waiting for it for a number of months, so it's not we haven't turned the corner, but we have seen some more positive results on these, particularly on the spend side this month, which is great news. So I'll just quickly run through footfall, because clearly you know, for most businesses, if you don't have the footfall you don't have the spend. So footfall as reported by Sensomatic, which is footfall, you don't have the spend. So footfall as reported by sensomatic, which is footfall into stores, was 1.7 below july 2024 last month.
Speaker 2:So a drop in customers going into stores, which actually is similar to the result from beauclair, who tracks spending in towns and cities, and they reported a drop of 1.4 percent. So slightly better on the spend side than on the football side, which is interesting, and a much better result than June where sales in towns and cities were down eight and a half percent. So we're not out the woods. It's still negative, but actually it's it's. You know it has bounced back a little and what was interesting was that the number of customers going in it's just because they're quite cautious about spending. So those customers who did spend would probably buy as much. The transaction numbers were down, so they're just being a little bit cautious, but much, much better result, much more where we want it to be good.
Speaker 1:So we've finally got some positive news, but let's not get carried away as ever.
Speaker 1:Let's temper it with the reality of where we're at yeah so, as I said at the start, weather makes us feel better. I mean, in fairness, we have a good run this year, haven't we? There's yeah, and these headlines muted it's going to be the hottest year on record, the driest year on record, etc. Etc. Certainly for the for the uk, some conflicting stories, but what I've been reading is lots more people stayed at home or will stay at home, ie not travel outside of the uk for holiday this year, so that that must have an immediate impact oh, absolutely, because clearly spend is going to go back into towns, uk towns and cities, which, of course, is what both claim measure.
Speaker 2:So we're going to see some of that positive spend coming back into our economy and actually the five sectors that that account for the majority of spend, which are fashion, food and drink aka hospitality, general retail, grocery and health and beauty also significant improvements in spend in those categories in july versus june, which is really good and also better than july last year, also better than July last year. I mean, july last year was pretty much a dance square. It wasn't particularly great, it wasn't awful, awful, but it wasn't like this year, with lots of hot weather, hot, sunny weather. So we've seen much better results in food and drink Clearly people can sit out and eat and it's pleasant and lovely and also in fashion. Actually it was 3.2% below July 2024 last month, but in June it was 10.8% below 2024. So we've seen an improvement there, which is really good news for the fashion industry because they, as we know, very weather dependent and very short seasons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And again in the news you've got, at the time of recording River Island play, of accessories to all those really difficult trading environments, again starting to to flush out, unfortunately, some of those that have struggled yes, and I mean it's sad, isn't it?
Speaker 2:but you know, I suppose, the longer you're in this industry and you know I've been in it now for 35 years- too many, too many years to mention. I know, I know, but you do see retailers which were stalwarts in my teenage years river island. You know all of those guys who I used to shop at. You see them come and go and I think it's you have to accept that if you don't stay on top of things, it is the nature of retail. It is very, very dangerous out there in that market the tell.
Speaker 1:The tell there was used to shop at so yes, you know that we all love woolies, but we all stopped shopping there, didn't we? So we're, we're a nation of shopkeepers. I've said it before, but we also work with our feet, don't we? Oh, absolutely, you're not relevant. You don't survive, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely. And you know, in this new era where everything is immediate and digital and you know it's very transient, it is very much harder to stay relevant, and so I'm not surprised that some I mean, if you look at claire's accessories, you know you can get what is in claire's accessories in every supermarket in the uk. Home bargains sell it, everywhere, sells it and it's low margin and it needs high volume and they're in very highly rented store locations in shopping centers. So I'm not surprised. It isn't the first time they've been through this. No, and it, you know it comes, comes through eventually it does.
Speaker 1:You can't. You can't keep avoiding the inevitable, unfortunately, but I suppose to temper the the good news that we we've had little of in the last probably 18 months. I'll talk a bit of doom and gloom. So you know, interest rates have gone down. Good news if you've got a mortgage and it's not a fair trade. Good news if you're buying stuff. Not great if you're saving. So double-edged sword.
Speaker 1:Employment is half a percent up year on year. So it's 4.7%, highest in four years, which we kind of predicted a while ago, if you recall that some of these government changes, that would be one of the outcomes, unfortunately and it's very true and interesting in youth unemployment. So by 14.1 percent, which I kind of put down, having just seen my son go through some of this. A lot less apprenticeships coming out of college, a lot less casual jobs. You know there's talk again of record numbers of people going to uni. Is that a consequence of there being fewer options, etc.
Speaker 1:So one to keep an eye on. I'd unfortunately predict that number's going to keep growing and as ever, you know, retail, the golden quarter that we come into, will will mean that maybe even grows further for some, unfortunately. So there's still some significant headwind on the way, but we're I suppose we're kind of turning into that home straight now, aren't we where, if you're one of the grocers and you rely on this goal for a quarter, you can kind of start to see halloween. You can start to see that friday, cyber monday, week, month, whatever it is now you can. You know, I spoke to somebody this morning and they were just finishing their christmas campaign, so all of that's coming into view. Isn't it starting to come into focus where it's been a long way off?
Speaker 2:absolutely, yeah, I mean I'm I work with beauclair, as you know, and we're planning a webinar on the 25th of september to you know, sort of really wrap up the three quarters and start to forecast what's happening in the fourth quarter of the year. So we're, you know, and that's only a few weeks away, and so we really are on the cusp of, you know, the most important trading period. I mean, you know, the good news is that these five sectors have done better and grocery actually was sort of just just below where we were last year, last month, so that's good. Health and beauty was flat or just slightly above. So that's, people are clearly buying sun, cream and makeup.
Speaker 2:You know, clearly that isn't discretionary, but you know discretionary items, you know they're the ones, especially when they're high margin, high cost, like fashion, are going to, you know, be in there for the cut for many people. So it is, it's, it's, it's going to be challenging. Again, it's going to be challenging if the younger people are feeling the pinch more than you know, us oldies, then that may be good for christmas, because actually us oldies are the ones often control majority of the purse, particularly around grocery. So we'll have to wait and see. But yeah it's.
Speaker 1:It's not going to be a q4 without its challenges, that's for sure no, and it never is just supposed to be better to be balanced and and pragmatic. Again, as a consumer, you hope it means that there's better deals. I mean again, if we talked a lot about the one of last year and then post the golden quarter event, lots of discounting brought forward. If I remember rightly, there was kind of a real blur from black friday onwards, wasn't there? People were discounting and discounting pretty much all the way from that point in November onwards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and it happens every year. To be fair and this, I don't know, this may actually give a bit of a false dawn for some retailers and they may buy too much stock, thinking that these results here are starting to get back to where we were and be a little bit more optimistic, which may mean that we've got some more severe discounting coming through short of four. The food and drink industry is going to have a tough time because wages, as we've talked about, have gone up through labour shortages and salary increases, so that's going to be tough for a lot of people. Actually, it's continuing to be tough and fashion I think we may see some real bargains if they've bought too much summer stock and haven't managed to shift it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, now's the time to get it, I think, because we've stopped to turn into the darker evenings. So from a consumer point of view, again, as per last year, it could be a really good opportunity to get some early bargains, get some early christmas presents and other bits. But yeah, it'd be interesting to see how those again january sale type organizations certainly your furniture and your bedding and those big considered purchases fair, because those are the things we'll potentially pull back on yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, the good news is that we're sitting in July with a result that isn't too shocking, because June was pretty dire, which is encouraging. So we just have to wait for August and see what that delivers, really, because again we've had a good month weather-wise and if people have stayed home, hopefully that will have boosted spend.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, on that positive note, for a long time in many of our chats we will pause there Fingers crossed. July to August looks good and we'll speak next month.
Speaker 2:Brilliant Thanks, Simon.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
