SLR speaks to new Chief Executive Ed Woodall, about how the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) is supporting Scottish retailers.
By Sarah Britton
When researching Ed ahead of our interview, SLR stumbled across his Facebook profile photo, where he’s kitted out in a Superman outfit, arm thrust up in the air in the classic superhero pose. But has he got what it takes to help the convenience sector tackle the triple threat of rising costs, spiralling crime and crippling overregulation? SLR finds out exactly what he’s got planned to make sure the Scottish Government understands the plight of convenience retailers and truly understands their value.
You’ve promised that ACS will be “a more powerful voice” – how?
There are two things in this fragmented political landscape that we’ve just seen happen in the elections in Scotland and across the rest of the UK. To really get cut through in that space, you have to have a real powerful and authentic voice. We’ve got lots of great data and information about the sector, but also I want to elevate the voice of retailers in our campaigning work and make sure that they have the opportunity to tell their story around the impact of crime; the cost of implementing the Deposit Return Scheme. It’s talking about the material impact on their businesses and the decisions they have to take off the back of that, because retailers are facing into making really hard decisions based on regulatory changes.
What are the key areas you will be campaigning on?
There are three standout areas:
- Retail crime and the impact that’s having on retailers;
- The cost of trading, which encompasses lots of different issues like business rates, the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme and employment costs;
- The illicit trade and rogue businesses on the high street.
How do you plan to engage with the Scottish Government?
- Retail crime
There are some very specific things in the SNP manifesto that we need to look at, such as the Retail Crime Taskforce and the investment in that. It’s really important that we keep focusing on how we get police investing in retail crime issues. The real difference is not just legislation that gets passed, but actually how retailers see the interaction with their local police forces and see when there is a theft, when there is violence towards their staff, that they actually get that connection. And the only way that’s going to happen is if we keep talking about the impact that it’s having and keep talking about the investments that retailers are making. It’s really great that it’s acknowledged in the manifestos and I want to keep us pushing on that.
Plugging the reporting systems in between the retailers and that Taskforce is going to be really key, and making it easier for retailers to report should be a focus of that money, as well as obviously uniformed officers on the ground.
Once you have it reported in, you can connect offences and that can have a much bigger impact long term.
- Illicit trade
One key thing in this space that we need to keep banging the drum on is an investment in enforcement activity.
We did some analysis around how much [Trading Standards] funding was needed across the whole country and it was something like £140m across five years, which I think worked out at about £30m just for Trading Standards in Scotland to be able to enforce new regulations.
So it’s absolutely the case that they need more and separate funding to what’s in that [Retail Crime] Taskforce to be able to do the job and the scale of the challenge of the illicit trade that retailers are seeing out there and report to us and reflect to us. In our recent crime report, 85% of retailers were saying they have seen an increase in the level of illicit trading in their communities.
We can always improve the powers and the laws around fines and around closure orders and the threat – we’re making progress on that. But actually, you’ve got to have Trading Standards teams out there, working with the police to enforce it, to close down locations that are trading in an irresponsible way. Because unless you’re closing them down, then they are going to carry on trading in another format or another way and pop back up. They are ultimately undercutting responsible retailers and that’s having obviously a material impact on their trade, but also a material impact on the perception of safety in the community. I think when people see those shops trading, they don’t feel they’re safe and therefore they don’t go out and shop. They don’t feel as good about the local area and their community.
The best enforcement response is Trading Standards working with the police, working with local licensing teams. Those agencies working together can use all the regulatory levers to be able to shut down stores very effectively. Sometimes it’s better to use licensing powers, sometimes it’s better to use fire safety powers. That cross-agency response is important and that can only really be coordinated and encouraged by government.
- SNP’s proposed vape display ban
This will be a key area for us to engage with [the SNP] on and help them understand that that has big implications for retailers in terms of the cost of refitting stores to manage that; the impact on the range of products that they can supply; and also just the visibility of those products to customers around how they can understand and access them if they want to access them in the same way.
Our view would be that a good compromise position is to say, ‘yes, you do need to restrict vape displays’, but probably to on the checkout and behind the checkout, as opposed to treating them the same way as tobacco products. You still get to control the sale of those products. They’re age-restricted products and having them around the till can help with that, but they are not the same as tobacco products.
- Cost of business
Business rates is a big area that retailers are always concerned about in terms of cost pressures and how the system will be reformed in the long term, in the sense of no retailer being penalised when they invest in their store.
So if someone wants to expand their store or invest in new equipment in the store, that they don’t lose things like the Small Business Bonus Scheme or they don’t get charged more for putting things in like CCTV or new racking or new equipment and machines in store.
Looking at how we value physical retail space as serving the community has to be a reflection for the Scottish Government going forward, because those reliefs and those investment incentives are absolutely key.
The other challenge is looking at the whole picture of all the regulations. They all have a cost, they all have an impact on retailers, and when you take them cumulatively, you start to see why retailers won’t be able to invest in other areas because they’re so focused on having to be compliant with those new regulations. And that’s the balance that really has to be struck. If the government wants growth, they have to help retailers in that space and think about the regulatory environment they operate in.
What else can ACS help retailers with?
- HFSS
With the High Fat, Salt & Sugar regulations coming into Scotland from 1 October, we have a dedicated piece of guidance to help retailers [within the scope] think about how they have to re-lay out their stores.
Probably most front of mind for lots of retailers is understanding where they can put things in stores. In a very graphic way, the guide shows that you can’t put products on end of aisles, you can’t put things at checkouts, and you can’t put things at store entrances, and it helps you navigate that really clearly. Obviously, this policy has already been introduced in England, so the guidance is very much tried and tested. There’s a resource for retailers to use, which has been updated to reflect the Scottish Government regulations and guidance.
- DRS
The introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme [in October 2027] means there’s a lot of big decisions for retailers to make, and we’ve produced some information that helps retailers think about the three options they have: an exemption, manual take-back, or reverse vending machine, and the associated costs.
The decision to introduce a deposit return scheme is going to be very location-specific to individual retailers. You’ve really got to think, ‘Will my customers return containers back to the stores?’; ‘Can I fit the machine in?’
I think retailers would have to really think hard about manual take-back, especially if they’re doing parcel collection services or Post Office, because they already have a lot of pressure on the space behind their checkouts. Do you want to add more pressure in terms of customers queuing up to bring back containers, as well as the space there alongside parcels and packages? There are also just very basic things to consider, like do you have a place for your staff to wash their hands? It’s this level of practicality that we need to really think about before we make those decisions.
The other question we’re really trying to address in that guide is understanding your return rate. The key thing for retailers to try and work out is will they get enough containers back to be able to break even when having a reverse vending machine in their stores.
- The generational tobacco ban
The final bit of guidance information we’re giving to retailers is around the introduction of the generational tobacco ban. We’ve launched a campaign called Decline09. This is about helping colleagues and customers understand that from 1 January 2027, anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will not be able to purchase tobacco products in the future.
So retailers will have to decline anyone born after 2009 from buying those products. There are some resources there, but also mandatory posters for retailers to put in store. That’s key because mandatory signage on tobacco has been so set for so long that people often have the signage built into their gantries and displays. Those are going to have to be changed before 1 January, which takes some thought and extra planning in advance. So we’ve got lots and lots of materials there to help retailers navigate those challenges now.
Any last words of advice for retailers?
Retailers need to look at what they do in stores to deliver for their customers and really think about ‘what is the customer mission for my store?’ and ‘how am I serving that really well?’ and ‘how am I solving a problem for them’.
Being precise around those areas are what I see the most successful retailers doing. It gives the business real focus, and the more you can drive that around shopper missions, the better.
