“We spend £25 per month on giant banners to NATIONAL LIVING advertise our better WAGE than half price deals. SURVIVAL Now every customer GUIDE knows about our NEWS ● CONVENIENCE ● PROFIT great prices” Vip Panchmatia Costcutter, Stroud PART 1 NEW WAYS TO DRIVE YOUR PROFIT MARGINS IDEAS FOR CUTTING YOUR OVERHEADS exclusive BUSINESS IDEAS to MAKE & SAVE money Don’t miss the opportunity to innovate with part one of our guide www.jtiadvance.co.uk – developed with you, for you. RN ad template.indd 21 1/22/16 4:10 PM 108892 Scottish Grocer 297x210.indd 5 20/01/2016 14:30 12.02.2016 BAKERS’ CHOICE Two stores, two different strategies IN-STORE BAKERY Page 32 » No typical newsagent ‘Demand for £10 mags made opening a store a no-brainer’ Page 26 » NEWS l CONVENIENCE l PROFIT www.betterretailing.com l £2.30 MP slams sneaky Sunday trade plan LEGISLATION l Government accused of using ‘underhand’ tactics and ‘outdated’ figures to push through opening hours changes. Increase l Cross-party alliance vows to keep fighting ‘anti-family, tobacco anti-small business’ proposals. Page 5 » prices ‘at own risk’ NEWSPAPERS Manufacturers warn price hikes Mail in could drive smokers digital to supermarkets. subs trial Page 4 » Scottish stores FRANCHISING first to process customer payments Bargain through terminals. Booze sets Page 4 » sights on SECURITY expansion Spring recruitment ‘Keep a drive follows record close eye number of store openings. on staff’ Retail crime tops Agenda Guto Bebb MP, pictured above, hosted an NFRN reception at Page 7 » Stark warning the House of Commons, attended by 48 MPs. after staff thefts “It’s often thought that retail crime is noth- ing more than shoplifting, and there’s noth- Hello! magazine cost retailers tens ing further from the truth,” said Mr Bebb. ofers independents of thousands of Inset: Nirupa Patel, centre, who was brutally exclusive promotion pounds. attacked in her Luton store over Christmas, to boost sales. is pictured with Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney Page 12 » Page 13 » South, and Ranjan Patel. Page 5 » RN ad template.indd 21 1/22/16 11:07 AM Retail Newsagent 12 February 2016 3 There was a lively Twitter discussion last week, following RN’s story that the Daily Mail had pinched £1.8m of potential profit from retailers after raising its cover price by 5p. The opinion of the publishers, wholesalers and roundsmen involved is that pounds, not percentage points, pay the bills and retailers are earning more after the margin cut than they were before. RETAIL NEWSAGENT NEWS ● CONVENIENCE ● PROFIT However, retailers are not convinced and I can think of a few reasons why. First, the extra £1.8m the Mail added to the £12.2m I estimate it’s It may be pounds that making from the price rise will go straight to its bottom line. It will help pay the bills, but you fund the National Living Wage and offset the extra sales decline caused by the rise. This will inhibit retailers’ ability to do either. only have to look at The second reason could be the Mail’s comment last week, that the RN’s Pricewatch page price rise will generate an additional £16.1m RSV each year. But this will each week to see how come at a cost – and you’ll be paying for it. Retailers will have to stump retailers have never up an extra £12.5m to fund the increase, after your margin has been re- claimed. This is extra cash that will be tied up in your businesses and looked more closely will be unavailable to be invested in other more profitable areas. at their margins It may be pounds that pay the bills, but you only have to look at RN’s Pricewatch page each week to see how retailers have never looked more closely at their margins. One retailer told me every part of his store is under the microscope to ensure he has the right products in the right quantity to earn the optimum margin. The two categories he admits he has barely looked at are news and magazines. For his 27 years in the trade, it has been CHRIS GAMM assumed – by all parties – that they are untouchable. Editor But how many more cuts can the category, these long-held assump- @ChrisGammRN tions and retailers’ loyalty withstand? 26 CONTENTS 34 NEXT WEEK 24 PRICEWATCH NEWS you thinking of making and saving guide 4 INDUSTRY NEWS switiching fascias Cigar prices 32 IN-STORE BAKERY Indies around the UK warned over increasing or joining one for Customers expect their the first time? 25 THE ENTREPRENEURS local c-store to sell tobacco prices 19 YOUR ISSUE 6 BUSINESS NEWS Conviviality In the second What you can learn freshly-baked goods. of our special reports from the world’s sets its sights on more RN talks to two from Menzies’ Wakefield best business franchise growth retailers to find super hub we look at the brains. This week, out how they meet 8 PRODUCT NEWS Red Bull processes involved on a Donald Trump demand 50 IDEAS pricemarks its ‘big cans’ typical day at the busy 26 RETAILER PROFILE 34 PREVIEW Part two of our profit- 12 NEWSTRADE Hello! promo distribution facility Jeremy Leslie Two new additions boosting guide deal could increase mag 20 INDUSTRY PROFILE spotted a 32 to Unilever’s sales by up to 500% Booker Premier gap in the ice cream range; 13 REGIONAL NEWS Trust no Director of Premier market for niche, Kopparberg expands one, warns retailer Martin Swadling, 20 specialist magazines into the fruit lager sector 16 NFRN DISTRICT COUNCIL below right and decided to fill it, Scotland DC report 21 COLUMNIST with his MagCulture THIS WEEK Thinking of shop in London’s trendy COMMENT & adding a new IN MAGAZINES Clerkenwell TOBACCO ANALYSIS store to your 36 ROUND-UP Is print being 17 LETTERS I’m counting my portfolio? Barry FEATURES sactrificed? Get to know your brands blessings says happy Frost has some 28 50 IDEAS 36 FOR YOUR SHELVES with our exclusive cut- newsagent tips on getting Part one of GQ Beckham special; out-and-keep cards 18 YOUR STOCK, YOUR SAY Are the best deal RN’s money- N-Photo supplement “WITH THE NATIONAL LIVING WAGE AND PENSION AUTO-ENROLMENT IT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER” – THIS YEAR’S 50 IDEAS GUIDE IS FULL OF MUCH-NEEDED PROFIT-BOOSTING IDEAS FOR YOUR STORE Page 28 » 4 12 February 2016 Retail Newsagent Follow RN f on Facebook facebook.com/retailnewsagent to have your say on the latest news Crisp fans Surrey store’s fresh new look turn to Convenience store group Kavanagh Retailing UK of- popcorn ficially reopened its Kava- nagh’s Budgens of Hinch- Independent retailers have ley Wood store in Surrey reported strong growth in this week, following a refit popcorn sales, while crisps in which new fresh and sales have remained steady. artisan food ranges were The news comes as added, along with fresh industry reports showed coffee and breakfast op- UK popcorn sales are grow- tions for shoppers. The ing by around 30%, while Hinchley Wood shop is the volume sales of crisps are second Kavanagh’s store up 1% with value sales in to adopt Budgens’ latest decline. premium concept follow- Haleem Sadiq, category ing a refit at its business controller at Bestway, said: in Eton. “The growth in popcorn – as well as nuts and fruit-based snacks – is being driven by shoppers opting for Retailers’ worries over higher running costs Increases ‘could play into hands of supermarkets’ food that fits with their healthier lifestyles.” Richard Cox, of Nisa Lo- cal in Essex, said: “I make £50 a week from popcorn, Tobacco pricing warning which has grown by around 15% in the last two years.” Nisa retailer Harj Dhasee reported a 35% increase in as indies consider rises popcorn sales in the past by Steven Lambert year, with £1 pricemarked of Farrants Newsagents in and I look for margins of have to navigate the tobacco Heritage packs being his Cobham, Surrey, said he around 9% to 10%. I’ll be category on little more than best-selling line. Tobacco manufacturers is looking to raise prices keeping this if pricemarked price alone,” he said. have raised concerns about on his tobacco products to packs go. “They will become more independents’ plans to raise improve his margins. “But we still want to price-savvy and if they tobacco prices in the face “I’m adopting a cost price remain competitive so I’ll can get tobacco cheaper in Discount of growing financial and system and I’m looking be comparing my prices to Sainsbury’s than in Londis, legislative pressures, which to achieve 8% margin on other convenience stores in you can’t blame them for they claim could play into cigarette sales,” he said. future.” going there.” defence the hands of supermarkets. “We’re halving our profit Ron Ridderbeekx, head A spokesman for Imperi- Booker and Bestway have Retailers told RN that fac- margin by stocking price- of corporate and regulatory al Tobacco added: “Tobacco defended their decision tors including the National marked packs and I think afairs at British American pricing plays a critical role to supply Easy Foodstore, Living Wage and the poten- if they go, retailers will Tobacco, said while manu- in the independent trade claiming the mega-dis- tial removal of pricemarked have more flexibility to be facturers could not dictate and stores will need to counter is paying the same packs under proposed plain choosier with their prices.” what prices retailers charge conceive their own pricing wholesale prices for goods packaging laws are leading Alkesh Pankhania, for tobacco, store owners strategies, which allow as independents.