One of the main issues the pop-up market has to contend with is hefty overheads. The cost of rent, wages, fit-out and advertising fees associated with running a pop-up shop comes to around £15,000 a month. Given that the average sale price point for an item in a pop-up shop is £40, retailers are then under pressure to sell as many as 1,000 items a day. “The maths just doesn’t work out,” says Russell. All the content from this weekís magazine, including this article, is available in the new app. Keeping sales volumes at such a high velocity as an individual operation is hard to do. Russell admits that of the few complaints he had from vendors, most of them were because they were not selling enough. Another warning sign is that there is still no dominant player. “We have not seen that winning competitor which has been able to attract capital left, right and centre,” Russell says. Whereas other start-ups have clear dominating players, such as Uber in the transport sector and Airbnb for accommodation, there is still no global pop-up equivalent, says Russell. He suggests that more attention should be paid to how the pop-up sector mirrors movements in the wider retail market. “Pop-ups work much better in a cluster,” he says. “If you scale it down it is like a micro-environment for the retail world – the food does well, the brands do well, but if you are starting the brand to reach the market then it is tough.” Russell believes to create pop-ups that work, the model needs to form part of a wider consumer experience and become a destination in its own right, in a similar vein to how shopping centres are focusing on becoming leisure destinations rather than just shopping malls. The first step to doing this is moving the responsibility for infrastructure from the tenant to the landlord. “People are not shopping at individual brands, they are shopping at destinations. The people that will win at this are those that start packaging pop-up with infrastructure. The serious problem with pop-up space is that most landlords do not offer this,” says Russell. Successful pop-up destinations such as Boxpark in Shoreditch, E1, and London Union’s Street Feast, E8, provide basic shop fit-out, marketing and customers, which is a much more viable model for tenants. When renting an empty shop for a pop-up, it is much harder to make it work on your own without the added infrastructure. Choosing where it will work without the support from other retailers is another challenge. “There needs to be much better data about where retailers should go,” says Russell. “There needs to be some kind of mechanism telling people where they will be successful as footfall is no longer indicative.” Landlords need to think more about how they are working with pop-ups too. Russell believes that one of the ways in which pop-ups will be able to work best is if they complement an existing retail destination, such as a department store. “Landlords need to think about what they are doing,” he says. “The reality of making this work is that there is a loss-leader somewhere and then you make money. “This is not a money-maker, it is about what you do with the space. Once you have brought in the experience element, you can think about where you will make your upside.” Source link

Date and Location Wednesday 20th April 2016, National Metalforming Centre, 49 Birmingham Road, West Bromwich, West Midlands B70 6PY Event overview Meeting of the Birmingham Health, Safety and Environment Association, beginning at 9.30 to 15.00 including buffet lunch. Target audience: Those with responsibility for investigating and managing claims High profile speakers from: Plexus Law, QBE Insurance, No5 Chambers, AXA UK, DPD Group Key topics: the law relating to Health and Safety and claims; claims process – key steps; ‘real-life’ examples, outcomes and learning points; case study; practical ‘tools’ for your ‘claims management toolbox’ Further information and booking To book or to find out more, contact Liz Prophett, BHSEA Secretary Secretary@bhsea.org.uk or visit the BHSEA website. Source link

The UK’s vote to the leave to the European Union is likely to push up energy bills, according to the chair of the Energy and Climate Change select committee. Angus MacNeil told Utility Week that, with the pound plummeting and Standard and Poor’s saying the UK’s AAA credit rating is “untenable”, there will be “a premium for investment”. “All we can hope is things settle in a week,” he said. “The people looking like taking over the helm – Johnson and Farage – do not encourage much confidence at all.” MacNeil said the big utilities are international companies, which “rely on people from many other countries”. He said the vote for Brexit has made the UK look “small-minded and distrustful of others” and asked: “Do you want to go to a country with that attitude?” “You can imagine a higher cost of energy as we continue along that path,” he concluded. MacNeil also said Scotland “will lead England” on energy policy post-Brexit. Director of E3G Jonanthan Gaventa has told Utility Week Ofgem should be given a special role to ensure regulatory compatibility between the UK and the EU following the vote.  Read more reaction from the industry here and here. Source link

The British Standards Institution has revealed their new research that suggests which of the source countries pose the largest threat of modern day slavery to the UK and the UK construction industry as a result of its global supply chains. The research, which is called the BSI Trafficking & Supply Chain Slavery Patterns Index, has shown that China is ranked amongst the high risk source countries of modern day slaver to the UK. China is a nation that supplied 18% of all annual construction materials coming in to the UK in 2015. Another surprising find is the Italy was also ranked by the BSI in their index as being a country that is high risk. £13.83 billion of construction materials were imported in to the UK. 6.4% of this total were imports from Italy. The BSI Trafficking & Supply Chain Patterns Index is a unique way of assessing the risk to the UK of imports originating from modern day slavery. A main economic concern in this practice will be the lowering in the price of construction materials as a result of unethical working standards. Therefore t is important to monitor the sources of the UKs imported materials. The Index analyses the business, government and civil society in order to work out the risk of modern day slavery and the free movement of people being exploited when importing and exporting materials. Whether one of the 191 source countries that goods are imported into the UK or the 193 destination countries that receive exported goods from the UK, the BSI have ranked each country from low to severe risk of using modern day slavery within their construction industries. The Modern Slavery Act was introduced in 2015 and raises concerns surrounding human trafficking to the UK as well as civil society. The purpose of the Index is to support the BSI’s risk management services to empower organisations and allow them to focus on protecting their workforce and reputations.

BMO Real Estate Partners, the institutionally-partnered business within the commercial property has a global portfolio worth £6.9 billion. The Real Estate Partners have announced that they have purchase of 203-205 Argyle Street, Glasgow. BMO focus on using detailed information into the proprietary and external research alongside accurate forecasting systems and other strategic analysis in order to uncover inefficiencies in the property market in order to find opportunities for improvement within property but also in different countries, types and tenants. BMO also offer a range of services including real estate fund management from a network of offices that cover four different countries. BMO work out of London, Munich, Paris and Dublin. BMO Real Estate Partners are part of the BMO Global Asset Management, who is also integrated into BMO Financial Group. BMO Financial group was founded in 1817 as the Bank of Montreal. Acting on the instruction of Toscaig Properties, the properties that have been purchased are currently being let by the fast food restaurant Pizza Hut. The popular pizza chain will continue to let the properties from the new owners until 2021. The annual rental return of these properties is in the area of £179,500. Toscaig already own property on Argyle Street, located at 167-201. These properties represent the initial net yield of 5.75%. Toscaig Properties Limited is a privately owned company based in the Channel Islands, and owns numerous properties in Glasgow. This kind of action is therefore not strainge to Toscaig Properties. Argyle Street is named after the Duke of Argyle and is the longest street in Glasgow. It is also one of the shopping streets in the city.

Portview, the fit-out specialists have been praised for being one of Ireland’s top companies. The awards were the Deloitte Best Managed Awards which were held in Dublin. The Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards took place in partnership with Barclays Bank Ireland. All 32 counties in Ireland were able to take part. The Deloitte Awards are unique as they are the only ones to consider all aspects of business performance when choosing their winners. The exclusive gala dinner and awards ceremony was attended by over 900 people who are part of the business sector in Ireland. Held at the Convention Center in Dublin, this year was the ninth Deloitte Best Managed Companies ceremony. Portview received high praise as they were noted for their superior business performance during the gala. The Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards focuses on giving recognition to new and innovative Irish companies that can operate at a high level of performance for business. Portview was established in 1975 and has become a dedicated fit-out specialist, narrowing their focus form the construction company they were previously. Their fit-out management process allows them to work with discerning brands and deliver some of the most creative projects for their clients. The Deloitte Awards which took place on the 3rd March saw Portview receive a platinum award for their business achievements. The top 127 Best Managed Companies as ranked by the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards, employs over 60,000 people throughout Ireland. The combined turnover for these companies is €11 billion. Having such successful businesses is great for Ireland’s economy and if the businesses in the ranks of the Best Managed Companies expand it could lead to more jobs being created. 16 different companies were all awarded the official “Best Ranked” title out of these top 127. This is the first time there has been 16 businesses given the accolade.