Brexit - Neighbourhood Retailer

Majority of Belfast businesses worried about economic outlook

Joe Kearney — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:43:15 +0000

The vast majority of Belfast businesses believe the city’s economy will only get worse over the next six months.

A survey of 406 firms by Belfast Chamber found 71% are pessimistic about the city’s short-term prospects.

It’s the latest survey carried out by the business body in conjunction with Belfast City Council.

Belfast Chamber chief executive Simon Hamilton said it paints “a pretty bleak picture” for business conditions in the city.

“Whilst trading and profitability have both been strong over the past six months, there has been a stark drop in confidence for the time ahead,” he said.

The survey found that firms are less pessimistic when asked about the prospects of their own business or sector.

Just 44% believe their own business will get worse in the coming next months, with 35% predicting similar trading conditions, while 20% expect an improved picture.

But pessimism surged when asked about the city’s prospects as a whole.

“With 99% of businesses seeing fuel and electricity costs rising and other costs also on the rise, coupled with a considerable number of issues around recruiting staff reflected in the survey results, it is easy to see why optimism amongst Belfast businesses has declined,” said Mr Hamilton.

Elsewhere, the new survey showed the very mixed experience of businesses under Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol.

One-in-three felt their business has been negatively disrupted by Brexit, while 30% said it had no impact.

Of the 106 Belfast businesses trading in the Republic, 36% reported increased profitability in the past six months and 42% of the 41 firms trading with the rest of the EU also reported higher half year profits.

Simon Hamilton said businesses in Belfast have continued to exhibit an ability to weather whatever storm they may face.

“Although it seems that the impact of the pandemic has receded, it has been replaced by a whole host of new challenges,” he said.

“I am always impressed by the business community’s capacity to adapt and innovate but it is clear that on top of every ounce of resilience they possess, many will need urgent help from both government and a restored executive.”

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EU suggests Northern Ireland checks could be cut to ‘a couple of lorries a day’

Linda Stewart — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 10:11:40 +0000

The EU’s chief negotiator on Brexit has suggested that physical checks on goods travelling across the Irish Sea could be cut to a “couple of lorries a day”.

Maroš Šefčovič said the union stands ready to work in an “open and constructive way” with Britain following a statement from the new UK Prime Minister on the prospect of a negotiated settlement on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

It comes as the UK and EU have been embroiled in a row over Britain’s proposals to override parts of the controversial post-Brexit treaty, as it seeks to reduce trade barriers with the region.

On Wednesday, Liz Truss said her preference is for a negotiated solution to the dispute.

But she said such a resolution would have to deliver “all of the things we set out” in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which is currently making its way through the UK’s Parliament.

The legislation would allow ministers to unilaterally scrap the arrangements the UK signed up to as part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Šefčovič said he was “encouraged” by Ms Truss’s recent remarks.

“We stand ready to work in an open and constructive and intensive way,” he said.

He argued that the trade border would be “invisible” under the EU’s plans, with goods processed “remotely” while making their way to Northern Ireland, as long as the UK provides real-time data on their movements.

Mr Šefčovič suggested physical checks would typically only be made for a “couple of lorries a day”, when “there is reasonable suspicion of … illegal trade smuggling, illegal drugs or dangerous toys or poisoned food”.

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Eastern promise: we profile Dundela Pharmacy on Belfast’s Belmont Road

Linda Stewart — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 13:27:05 +0000

Dundela Pharmacy on the lower Belmont Road is the epitome of what a community pharmacy should be. A few doors either side is a butcher and a baker and while there’s no candlestick maker, a local craft shop certainly sells them. Owner David McCrea tells Neighbourhood Retailer how it’s going.

David McCrea’s late father John opened Dundela Pharmacy in the front room of a terraced house in 1959. Much has changed in the years since but one thing that remains is the community ethos that sets it apart from so many high street multiples.

If ever its value to those it serves was tested it was during the pandemic and David is rightly proud of how the whole team answered the call to arms.

Call to arms

“We stayed open throughout and were able to help people when other health care providers may not have been as accessible,” he told Neighbourhood Retailer.

“I didn’t want anyone to be fearful and realised that everyone would have their own worries in terms of putting themselves and their families at risk. But they were fantastic both in their own commitment and making the changes that we had to do. Initially it was just essential services but that changed as time went on.

“For the first few months we were working from 7 in the morning until 10 at night and physically could not have done any more.”

That work though took its toll and David is still processing how much it affected him personally.

“Everyone has struggles in their own way and I actually find it quite hard to talk about it,” he explained. “I don’t think it’s too strong to say that I am possibly suffering from PTSD after it.

“I struggled with the workload and with the fact that other people were at home in the early days when the sun was shining, and I know well that they had their struggles too.

Draining

“I found it physically and emotionally draining. There was no end in sight, and we didn’t really know what we were dealing with. The situation evolved and changed every day and what got me was that as the owner of a business I was responsible for the entire team and in some ways for a community… the physical and mental welfare.”

And David would not be in the least surprised to see the impact of the pandemic play out when it comes to those needing medicinal intervention to help them cope.

“We are not seeing that yet in terms of GP prescriptions, but I know that the mental health effects of any trauma tend to come one-and-a-half to two years later.

“I think we will see that toll being taken in the general population. The pressure I was under was no greater than someone stuck at home with three small kids and no garden.”

Stepping up

David’s team of 14 staff; including pharmacists, dispensers, counter staff, a delivery driver and photo lab technician showed not only their professionalism but their dedication throughout and he is confident that if called upon to do more in future they will again step up.

“We have already been doing flu vaccines for years to augment what GPs and other frontline providers do and we are now the frontline provider for the spring booster vaccine in care homes and that is the first time that pharmacy has been given such a high profile role in that fight. We have been recognised for what we are capable of and hopefully that will continue.”

While much has changed since David took over the business in 1995, he says the biggest focus moving forward is survival rather than further expansion.

“We have taken on new services such as vaccination, a punch dispensing robot for compliance aids, we have developed screening services and there is a huge demand for what we are doing,” he told Neighbourhood Retailer. “But because of the way the health care budget works, particularly since 2011, the biggest challenge has been simply survival.

“We hope to develop new services and that the transformation of the health service will give pharmacy a bigger role. I hope that retail perfumery and photographic will remain viable, but the big change is likely to be in pharmacy.”

Brexit impact

Brexit has also had an impact with “the biggest problem an increase in the price of drugs” for pharmacies like David’s.

“Most things are available but because we are a unique market our prices are still going up. We also have still in place here European legislation called the Falsified Medicine Directive which has been scrapped in GB. That means some medicines licenced in GB are not licenced here and that inevitably pushes prices up.

“Our reimbursement is still based on the English Drug Tariff which is based on English cost prices and trying to get our department of health to recognise that disparity is difficulty. It will happen but in the meantime it is affecting our cashflow.”

And David doesn’t see imposing a levy on some prescriptions as necessarily being an answer when it comes to raising more cash for our beleaguered health service.

“My understanding is that it costs almost as much to police and administer it as it actually raises,” he says.

Over the counter

“What we do find with free prescriptions is that there are an awful lot of things prescribed like paracetamol or ibuprofen that can be bought over the counter for a few pence but the cost for the health service to give that out with a GP consultation is as much as £60, so that is a cultural change that is needed to get people to take more responsibility for their own heath.

“If people took more responsibility and acted on their pharmacist’s advice a lot of minor conditions would never need to reach the GP, freeing up resources for hip replacements, mental health and many other areas where we don’t have enough resource.

“You need to look at the value of community pharmacy rather than the cost of it. A case in point is medicine adherence services which is providing medicines in trays.

“We can do that for £15 per patient per week and it keeps people out of hospital. That is being sorted at present but for many years the Department of Health could only see the cost of what we were doing, but it costs £600 to put one person in hospital for one night and if we can stop that its 40 weeks of providing this service.

“It’s matter of convincing people to look at the value of things rather than the cost.”

Sense of community

While Dundela Pharmacy has always been appreciated by the community it serves David says the past two years have made people more grateful for its services than ever, as well as fostering a real sense of community.

“It raised our profile and we got lot of very positive feedback from people tankful for what we were doing,” explained David. “We have dozens of people in every day asking advice who can’t get through to their GP. The pharmacy network is an extremely valuable resource and people are beginning to recognise that.

“In terms of the shop local mentality we saw that both in terms of retail and prescription dispensing.

“Pre Covid people may have got their script near to the health centre or near to where they worked but now they are getting their prescriptions near to where they live because for a long time they didn’t go their doctor and maybe not to their work so a pharmacy like our one, in the middle of a community. has benefitted from that. Whether that’s a permanent change is hard to say.”

Fears for the future

But David has real fears for the future of many of his high street friends and colleagues.

“I know I started doing a lot of my shopping online, so I realise that if people like me don’t change back to their old habits I am part of the problem and I do fear for other high street retailers given the change in shopping habits which has only been accelerated by the pandemic,” he says.

“Retail wise a lot of shopping moved online during the pandemic but most of what we sell is not what people would be ordering online so we have been protected from that shift.

“There used to be a wee electrical and hardware store here and I would have been there any time I needed to, but I can’t get what they had locally now so I get it from Amazon and that breaks my heart to be honest.”

Inflation threat

Inflation too, driven in no small part by the war in Ukraine, is likely to hit retailers hard, including David.

“I expect to see that. Our fuel has gone up frighteningly and I know the cost will filter through to everything we buy, and we will eventually have to put our prices up at a time when people have less money in their pockets. A lot of the luxury stuff will probably drop-off.”

And David is passionate in his belief that much more needs to be done to protect the high street from the threat posed by Amazon and other online retailers.

“The value of bricks and mortar retail must be seen in terms of the social capital, the benefit to the community and in providing employment. The online retailers don’t do any of that so tax them properly

“Our biggest killer is rates and I know there were no rates collected for two years but they will be crippling when they start again.

Social value

“There needs to be a recognition of the social value in having a vibrant high street of mixed shops that is a community within itself. There are too many rows of shops that are derelict apart from a hairdresser and the bookmaker and it leads to all sorts of crime, deprivation, and antisocial behaviour.

“Online has none of the overheads, the staff costs, the shrinkage caused by crime… the playing field needs to be levelled.”

Speaking of crime, one thing David remains grateful for is the fact that Dundela is yet to be exposed to the sort of terrifying incidents that many of his colleagues in pharmacy have had to endure.

“Touch wood we have not had any violent attacks or robberies or attempted robberies, though I am very aware that plenty of my colleagues have.

“It’s just luck that we have not been targeted. We don’t want to put up barriers but there has to be more protection. We have had an ongoing problem with shoplifting and we have to just be on our guard.”

Nature of wellbeing

David is also passionate about the role of the pharmacist within the health service and helping patients on the journey to wellbeing.

“Wellbeing is not just about treatment – that is one aspect, and we will always supply any medicines that might be required – but wellbeing is about lifestyle, prevention and knowing how to look after yourself. That is something the health service can do more on and pharmacy can certainly play its part.

“There’s a service called Living Well that has been around for some time but there’s a lot more that could be done. Because it is less tangible it is harder to get funding for it and it’s a matter of whether that can be commissioned.”

As for his own wellbeing, David is a fan of decompressing in the garden these days as he admits to not perhaps being as active at 53 as he was a decade ago.

Downtime activities

“Ten years ago, I might have said running and cycling but I love gardening now and I don’t know when that happened,” he laughed.

“I love sailing and kayaking, anything out on the water, and family time… even though there never seems to be enough of it.

“I have three grown up daughters, two of whom are at university, and one is doing her A Levels, add in the wife and two female dogs and I am very much outnumbered.

“Most of the people who work with me are also female so why should it be any different at home!”

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Former NI Retail Consortium director Aodhan Connolly honoured by Queen

Linda Stewart — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 08:45:34 +0000

The former director of the Northern Ireland Retail consortium, Aodhan Connolly, has been made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the economy.

Brexit expert Aodhan Connolly, who recently left Belfast to take up a business role in Brussels, was named in the honours list, published to coincide with the Platinum Jubilee.

The University of Cambridge law graduate, who has now taken up the post as director of European Division & Head of Office of the NI Executive in Brussels, said: “I was surprised to say the least when I received the letter, and I’m delighted at the recognition.

“But while it’s an unbelievable honour for me as the individual, it’s collectively down to the work of Business Brexit Working Group, formed in December 2019 in response to the passage of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to highlight the concerns of the 85 per cent of Northern Ireland business that it represents.”

In that role, as well as during his decade-long tenure as the first full-time director of the NI Retail Consortium, Aodhan garnered respect across business, politics and media for his knowledge and ability to convey complex issues in a concise and clear manner.

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Full implementation of the Protocol means paperwork could take eight times as long M&S

Linda Stewart — Thu, 12 May 2022 09:14:40 +0000

Marks and Spencer has had to withdraw about 600 lines of goods from its stores in Ireland since Brexit, the House of Lords has been told.

Sacha Berendji, the retailer’s Ireland and Northern Ireland director, also said that it had faced increased costs and wastage due to new rules and administration.

He was giving evidence to the House of Lords Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland sub committee in Britain on Wednesday.

Full implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol could lead to paperwork taking eight times as long, he said.

Some vans that required six documents before Brexit now require 600, and there is a “substantial difference” between exporting goods to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

At present easements in Northern Ireland mean that it takes approximately 20 people just one hour to process food shipments.

However, if the protocol was fully implemented it could take the same amount of people eight hours because of the sheer amount of paperwork required.

Despite this, there is a silver lining, whereby more than 450 products sold in M&S stores across the island of Ireland are now sourced in Ireland.

Mr Berendji told the House of Lord’s Sub-Committee on the Protocol that their stores in the Belfast area, along with Glasgow, have some of M&S’s highest food market shares in the entire company.

He told peers that the impact on their operations in the North, where a number of grace periods to rules within the Northern Ireland Protocol apply, had been significantly less than in Ireland.

He said: “Pre-Brexit, our food supply chain worked in exactly the same way for all our stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, once Brexit came in, and in preparation for it, we had to significantly adjust our supply chain.

“While our business is significant in Ireland, it isn’t big enough to stand up its own supply chain in Ireland so the vast majority of our goods continue to to be shipped from GB over to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

“In order to facilitate this we had to create a new export centre in Motherwell. All of our product for export to Northern Ireland and the Republic is now shipped into Motherwell; previously it was in our regular depots.

“At Motherwell, those vehicles are separated and despatched to Northern Ireland and the Republic.

“In Northern Ireland it is much simpler but, in both countries, the impact has been that we have needed to move from what we call day one to day two.

“Previously goods would have come into our depot on the evening before and be shipped out ready for sail the following morning.

“The process now requires an extra 24 hours in our export centre which means that we have taken one night’s life out of all the product we ship which clearly has had an impact on shelf life for our customers.”

Mr Berendji added: “We have also seen an availability impact, less so in Northern Ireland but still there. But in our Republic of Ireland stores there are about 600 lines out of around 7,000 that we are not able to export, which we need to find a different solution for.

“Therefore, the net impact for our customer has been that we have seen worse availability in both countries, although markedly worse in the Republic of Ireland, and higher waste levels for us.

“On top of that, the cost of setting up the operation has cost us around £30m (€35m) of additional costs for the island of Ireland.”

“It takes up to 20 people an hour to despatch every vehicle to with the correct documentation to Northern Ireland. That number is eight hours for the Republic of Ireland.

“Every single item on our load to Republic of Ireland needs to be certificated every single day.

“We have looked at other options and we have built and recruited a local sourcing team for the island of Ireland and there are around 450 products we are now sourcing locally, including short shelf-life products like sandwiches.”

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