Retail Trade Takes a Dive in Malta
Posted: 04/03/2012 Filed under: Malta News | Tags: EU, Malta, retail, Trade Leave a comment »
With new numbers being released for the month of January, 2012, Maltese retail trade fell by 5.7%. Of all the EU countries, only seven countries showed a decrease in retail trade, Malta being one of them. Though EU wide, the retail sales index remained stable, statistics from some countries are slightly troubling. The largest decrease was from Portugal with an 8.7% decrease. Malta was the next highest decrease and Bulgaria came after Malta with a decrease of 2.6% when it came to retail trade.
The good news here for the EU is that eleven of the 27 members showed increases in retail trade, the largest increase from Lithuania at a whopping 17%. Following Lithuania, good news also came from Latvia at 16.6% and from Romania at 10.2% increase. These large numbers are good for the entire EU, but of course, there is concern from those countries that showed a decrease in retail trade, like Malta.
Looking a bit more closely at the Maltese numbers, food, drinks and tobacco all fell in Malta by about 0.9% when compared to the same period in January, 2011. When looking at the same numbers for the EU in general, food, drinks and tobacco fell by 0.5%. However, when you look at the number for non-food items, Malta actually saw an increase of 1.1% which is promising for the overall retail trade numbers in the future. In the EU, non-food numbers also rose by 2.1%.
It is important to remember that this is only one indicator of the Maltese economy. Other factors that go into the overall economic health of Malta are doing quite well, such as the very low unemployment rate. That alone could be a greater indication of positive growth of Malta than these numbers dealing with retail trade. Only time will tell how these numbers effect Malta overall.
Small Business Loses £££ By Failure To Shop Around
Posted: 25/02/2010 Filed under: Small Business, UK Company Set Up, UK Taxation | Tags: business concerns, retail, Small Business, small business advice, uk companies Leave a comment »Clearly I deal with small businesses every day and I know how important it is that they take every advantage especially when they are starting out. So, I found an article this week in the Telegraph a bit disturbing.
The bottom line of what the article was saying was that small business in the UK could be saving 1,7bn just on export finance alone. What a staggering figure. These figures are based on research done by Moneycorp after surveying 1,000 companies involved in overseas trade.
In essence what he is saying is that too many UK small businesses involved in any type of export are relying on the finance of high street banks and this is proving (often) to be a very expensive way of doing things. Especially with the sterling depreciating these businesses cannot afford this unnecessary loss.
Mark Deans, Moneycorp dealing manager, said some businesses could be savingas much as £2,000 on each export transaction and more than £16,000 a year by shopping around the foreign exchange market for the best currency deal. That is a lot of money in this sector.
According to the article these types of businesses should also be looking at the way they handle cash deposits. Research has shown the average rate paid by high street banks for business accounts with balances of £50,000 was around 0.25pc gross AER, compared with a market rate of 0.68pc.
If you area small business looking for advice on how to set up or get things right with your taxation and other issues then do not hesitate to contact us here at St Matthew’s eAccounting. We deal with this stuff every day and would love to help you out.
Pop Up Shops Are A Bonus For Everyone
Posted: 29/01/2010 Filed under: Investment | Tags: business, pop up shops, retail Leave a comment »There is a new phenomenon in high street shopping that is proving to be a success for everyone concerned. Pop up shops.
The trend was started by upmarket publisher Phaidon when it opened a store on a short term lease to sell its own wares. This was bought about by the reluctance of chain booksellers to stock their products. Their example was quickly followed by other retailers including perennial favorites Marmite.
All over Britain small traders are following suit and taking advantage of empty high street premises to take out short term leases.
Many of these concerns especially saw it as an advantage to rent premises in the run up to Christmas. They were able to give themselves a high street presence at the busiest time of the year at a discounted rate. even better they were often able to choose the exact length of lease that suited them so they were not stuck paying rent long after the usefulness had gone out of the situation.
One company that used a pop up shop to their advantage were Nottingham designer-makers Debbie Bryan and Sarah Bainton. They say it worked well for them. “The feedback we have had come the people selling the work is that it went down really well,” they said.
It is a win win situation for everyone as the landlords who own the premises get money where they were previously getting none. The retailer has affordable short term premises and the consumer benefits from more choice in the market.
Looks like pop up shops could be the way of the future, just don’t get too attached to them.
