#uk-retail

#uk-retail

New figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show overall retail sales rose by just 1.2% in December compared with a year earlier - well below the 12-month average growth rate of 2.3%. While food sales proved resilient, demand for non-food items such as clothing, electronics and gifting products fell flat at the most critical time of the year. Non-food sales slipped by 0.3% year on year in December, a sharp reversal from the 4.4% growth recorded in the same month in 2024.

The upmarket fashion retailer LK Bennett is on the brink of collapse for the second time in six years after filing an application to appoint administrators. Court filings show the business submitted papers to the High Court on Tuesday, signalling that efforts to secure fresh funding or a buyer may have failed. The move puts around 280 jobs at risk across the group.

'The sad truth is that many of Britain's favourite smaller retailers are very unlikely to see their final profits rise by even 3% and, in fact, their prospects for Black Friday are increasingly dark. Such is the competition and the scale of the discounts offered by major retailers that smaller regional and specialist sellers are finding their profit margins stretched to the limit in order to remain competitive.