Things are looking up for Britain’s retail industry, with a rise in sales and a drop in company failures for the third quarter.
Sales during the quarter totaled some £429.12 billion (about $565 billion), up by 0.71 percent over the previous quarter, according to the latest Creditsafe Watchdog Report on the U.K. economy. Retail employment, meanwhile, rose by nearly 14 percent. Company failures eased by nearly 15 percent.
Tesco was among the three fastest-growing retailers in the third quarter
Bad debt in the retail sector plummeted by about 96 percent, from $70.8 million to $2.77 million, according to Creditsafe. The firm's report lists Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco as the fastest-growing companies in the sector.
“We’re seeing that, while retailers have been hit hard by a combination of issues this year and some notable collapses,” said Chris Robertson, U.K. chief executive at Creditsafe, as reported in Independent Retail News, "the spending power of the UK consumer remains, and the sector overall is pulling through."
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
