Snow proved a beast for UK high street retailers
THE Beast from the East kept shoppers away from stores in March as people huddled in the warmth of their homes amid the big freeze, figures show.
A report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG, covering the final days of February to the end of March, said the period was volatile as the run-up to Easter helped to offset the impact of the “seemingly endless” cold weather on sales.
It said UK retail sales increased by 1.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared with March 2017, when they had decreased 1 per cent from the preceding year.
On a total basis, sales rose 2.3 per cent annually in March, against a decline of 0.2 per cent in March 2017.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “March paints a volatile picture for sales, which experienced peaks and troughs to deliver some modest growth on last year.
“The positive distortion from the timing of Easter pushed sales up by over 15 per cent during the holiday week compared with the rest of the month, only just making up for a sub-zero performance at the start of the month.
“There’s no doubt that the Beast from the East and its successor played a significant role in deterring shoppers from making store visits.
“But it didn’t dampen consumers’ appetites towards food purchases, which saw the anticipated spike from the Easter festivities.”
Paul Martin, head of retail at KPMG, said: “March was difficult for large parts of the UK retail industry. Seemingly endless cold weather dissuaded would-be shoppers from the high street and a number of retailers delivered bad news.”
The report was released as figures from Barclaycard showed that con- sumer spending growth slowed as temperatures fell in March, increasing by 2 per cent year on year – the lowest level since April 2016.
It said spending at garden centres plunged by 26.4 per cent annually – the biggest fall since Barclaycard’s records on this started in September 2014.
Paul Lockstone, managing director at Barclaycard, said: “The Beast from the East took its toll on the high street in March, keeping shoppers at home and leading to a slowdown in consumer spending.”
Barclaycard said in-store spending contracted by 1.9 per cent annually as just over a third (34 per cent) of consumers said the cold weather prompted them to spend less overall on the high street.
As people remained online spending grew by cent.
Spending on essentials grew more strongly than spending on discretionary luxuries, Barclaycard found.
The strong performance in essentials was bolstered by supermarket spending increasing by 5.1 per cent – the highest level of growth since June 2017, even as petrol spending declined 1.8 per cent year on year.
Bright spots in non-essential spending were restaurants and pubs, up 7.2 per cent and 7.7 per cent annually respectively. indoors, 11.7 per