Confederation needs greetings indies’ views to inform discussions with government
The budget has informed the latest survey from the Independent Retailers’ Confederation which really wants to hear card sellers’ opinions to help inform feedback to the government.
The deadline for the quarterly Heartbeat survey is Friday, 22 November, which covers Q3 2024 and, with the GCA being an IRC member, CEO Amanda Fergusson said: “We want to hear from as many indie greeting card retailers as possible.
“I attended the IRC meeting this week – the GCA is among the 20 trade associations which are members – where we discussed the impact of the budget, with the employers’ national insurance changes, national minimum wage increases, and business rate relief reductions.”
The survey for July to September this year includes the usual questions asking retailers to compare the period to the previous quarter as well as 12 months ago, and asks how confident they are for the current quarter, as well as for the new year.
Then question nine says: “Thinking about the budget announcements relating to national insurance, national minimum wage and business rates relief, please score how comfortable they will be for your business to accommodate,” giving choices of very difficult, quite difficult, neutral, quite easy and very easy.
There’s a chance to expand on those answers, and respondents are also asked if they’re making any changes to their business plans because of the budget announcements.
The budget unveiled on 30 October by chancellor Rachel Reeves has been roundly condemned by many in the greeting card industry as anti-High Street and anti-small businesses.
Airing views from the greeting card sector, publisher Wendy Jones-Blackett told the BBC earlier this week of her fears for companies like hers, which employs seven staff, and how to retain them while coping with the rising costs.
Data obtained by the IRC in its regular quarterly survey is confidential and used to help shape the confederation’s representation of the independent sector and the discussions with government representatives, local authorities and other industry stakeholders.
The survey can be found here and responses are need by Friday, 22 November.
