Retail sales figures for July paint a picture of a harsh trading environment. With a headline figure of £26 billion for the entire retail sector, food-dominated retailing volumes showed a 1% drop, continuing an existing decline (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/rs0811.pdf). Retailers still have logistics vacancies to fill, but will be looking even more critically at the calibre of applicants, warns specialist logistics recruitment agency BiS-Henderson.
Food retailers have seen an estimated 5.7% rise in prices against July 2010, generating a provisional figure of £10.7 billion for the month, accompanied by a 1.6% year on year decline in volumes. While this trend was readily identifiable among large operators, where there was an unadjusted 2.1% drop in volumes, specialist food outlets suffered an unadjusted drop in sales volumes of over 5%.
Household goods sales have been hit hard: with a 4% drop in year on year volumes and a 3.4% drop in sales values, competition for a share of the estimated £2.3 billion cake has been fiercer than ever. High streets across the country face gaps, which are now appearing in prime town centre locations.
The current quarter’s unemployment figures will be swelled by the failure of discount department store TJ Hughes, with a total payroll of around 4,000 staff. Like many retail operations, a high proportion of the customer-facing sales staff was female. However, unlike the surge of public service women facing redundancy, these ladies have recent experience of working life in the private sector.
In terms of Logistics recruitment, the warehousing and distribution staff that once formed the backbone of the former retail chain will have been a comparatively small and compact team. Their ability to operate as team members elsewhere will depend as much on matching the applicant’s personality with the company culture: skills may be transferable, but personalities have to mesh, too, for a team to work efficiently.
As a specialist supply chain and logistics recruitment consultancy, BiS-Henderson knows that it takes more than counting beans and ticking boxes to select the right people for the job: it understands the company culture that the applicant will face in his or her new job.
For more information about BiS Henderson’s supply chain and logistics recruitment services please leave a comment below or visit our logistics recruitment page. BiS Henderson, Recruitment of Supply Chain Professionals by Supply Chain Professionals
