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25 Jun 2025

The E-Bike Positive campaign has seen major success in the first half of 2025, with its message reaching nearly 8 million people across the UK through high-profile media coverage and growing...

20 Jun 2025

The House of Commons Business and Trade Committee has asked the ACT, and its parent company Bira, to help them reach out to small business retailers across the country, for their quick input on...

20 Jun 2025

Activate Cycle Academy has reopened its Cytech training facility in Darlington, offering a full range of courses from Home Mechanic up to Cytech Technical Three.
 

18 Jun 2025

The Association of Cycle Traders believes the time has come for greater accountability throughout our supply chain, writes ACT Director Jonathan Harrison in an article published for BikeBiz.

16 Jun 2025

The ACT has welcomed the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking's report "Unregulated and Unsafe: The Threat of Illegal E-Bikes", which calls for urgent Government action to...

11 Jun 2025

A new academic study has found that overzealous pro-cycling campaigners on social media may be inadvertently damaging the case for better cycling infrastructure across the UK.

11 Jun 2025

Bira has welcomed the Welsh Government's consultation on business rate reforms for retail shops, whilst calling for significant improvements to ensure the proposals truly support high street...

10 Jun 2025

Bike thefts across England and Wales have continued their steady decline, according to new data released by cycle insurance specialist Bikmo.

9 Jun 2025

Retailers on Britain's high streets are being encouraged to put themselves forward for the first-ever Love Your High Street Awards, designed to celebrate the small businesses that bring...

9 Jun 2025

 To coincide with Bike Week (9-15 June) – the UK’s annual celebration of cycling – new research has revealed a clear shift amongst Gen Z and Millennials in their approach...

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Retail sales in March and April 'better than expected'

Posted on in Business News , Cycles News

Retail sales in March and April 'better than expected', according to the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) Economic Briefing Report reported by IRC member BIRA.

The BRC Analysts' Q2 Forecasts for 2021 and 2022 Retail Sales and Prices is available to download from the Retail Insight and Analytics website.

Key points include:

  • We have revised our sales forecasts significantly compared to our Q1 projections. Both Food and Non-Food Sales were stronger in March and April than what we had expected in January, and we now expect higher spending for the following months than we did in Q1.
  • We now project Total Sales to increase by 5.9% (an upward revision from 1.2% projected in Q1), with Food sales rising by 2.0% (an upward revision of our Q1 forecast of 0.3%), and Non-Food sales increasing by 9.1% (an upward revision from our Q1 projection of 2.0%).
  • For 2022 we forecast Total Sales to decrease by 3.4%, with Food sales projected to fall by 1.0%, while Non-Food sales projected to decline by 5.4%.
  • We revised our Shop Prices forecasts for 2021: we now expect Food prices to rise by 1.1% (a downward revision from our Q1 forecast of 1.3%), but our expectation of the evolution of Non-Food prices has remained unchanged at -2.2%. This implies that overall Shop Prices would decrease by 1.1%, compared to our Q1 projection of -1.0%.
  • For 2022, our price forecasts are unchanged from our Q1 projections. We expect Food prices to rise by 2.0% and Non-Food prices to fall by 1.8%, which means that Shop Prices would fall by 0.5%.

In producing these forecasts, we have assumed that restrictions will lift according to the roadmap, that no another lockdown will be imposed and that the vaccination rollout will continue at pace.


 

 

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