Mark Brett is the UK agent for both Boland Party and ITI (UK) and has years of party industry experience under his belt. He shares his take on remaining positive in the face of retail’s many challenges in 2018.
“There is much to fear. Good start to a novel, maybe, but for an article in the trade press, perhaps not such a judicious opener! Having started with that sentence I must qualify what I mean. During my working life (and that goes back a fair few years, including major economic downturns, three day week, 20% inflation, everybody going on strike and the plummeting value of sterling) there have never been so many challenges facing our industry.
These days, many meetings within our sector involve talking about designs and trends – words that would have been a complete anathema, even ten years ago, to any self-respecting buyer or supplier. This keeps the supply base on its toes and ensures a constant influx of new product. To think that, way back in our commercial history, a holographic hat was going to be the next big thing!
A whole raft of social, economic and technological changes have and will continue to effect how people buy and sell stuff. Yet that is what they continue to do… buy and sell stuff. Yes, it is a bit trite, but that is what happens. Retailers (of all types) and the supply chain, eventually adapt. Many retailers have disappeared since the financial crash, while others have appeared and flourished.
Amazon, the Beelzebub of retail, opened its metaphorical doors in 1995. Founder Jeff Bezos didn’t make a profit for the first five years. The irony here lies in that on his way to becoming one of the wealthiest men in the world and having a devastating effect on many retailers, he has also created the opportunities for many to flourish and become millionaires in their own right using his platform. And if Waterstones can reinvent itself after books were the first product area to be slaughtered by the Amazon behemoth, surely other product areas can do the same?”
This column was first published in Progressive Party Europe and can be read in full online.
