Retail

March 2021

Executive urged to extend rates relief for local shops

Representatives from the retail sector have welcomed duty freezes on fuel and alcohol, and a furlough extension, in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget 2021 while urging the Northern Ireland Executive to follow England’s lead in extending rates relief to local shops.

---

Search on for Belfast winner of £1m lottery ticket

The National Lottery has formed a novel partnership with local pizza chain Four Star Pizza in its quest to find the owner of an unclaimed £1m EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker ticket bought in Belfast before the prize fund expires on March 31.

---

Gallery

S&W bolsters new branding with video launch

Grocery wholesaler S&W is rolling out its new A Whole Lot More branding, unveiled at the beginning of the year, launching a promotional video across its social and digital channels.

---

February 2021

Post-pandemic recovery of city, town & village centres

Plans are underway to revitalise Northern Ireland’s city, town and village centres, decimated by a year of lockdown restrictions and longer-term decline.

---

Call for under-18s to continue selling lottery tickets

Independent retailers are calling for sales assistants under 18 to be allowed to continue selling national lottery tickets and scratch cards to customers when new age-to-play restrictions take effect later in the year.

---

Value, freshness & locals at heart of new campaign

EUROSPAR has launched a new campaign placing community, convenience, value and its fresh credentials front and centre of consumers’ minds.

---

Poundland to reopen four local stores this Friday

Four local Poundland stores placed in hibernation back in January, due to falling customer numbers when nearby non-essential retailers closed in the latest lockdown, are to reopen this Friday.

---

Lidl NI creates 35 jobs with latest opening at Hillview

Lidl Northern Ireland has officially opened its new store at Hillview Retail Park, Crumlin Road in north-west Belfast, jumpstarting a redevelopment of the formerly dormant site.

---

Call for NI Executive to produce roadmap for reopening high streets

Retail NI is urging the Northern Ireland Executive to develop a roadmap for reopening the high street, ahead of its meeting scheduled for February 18 to review current lockdown restrictions.

---

Green light for Monkstown superstore slammed by Retail NI

Retail NI has slammed Antrim & Newtownabbey Planning Committee’s decision to grant permission for a 40,000-square-foot Asda out-of-town superstore on the former Nortel site in the Monkstown Industrial Estate.

---

Costcutter Supermarkets Group trials customer loyalty app

Costcutter Supermarkets Group (CSG) is launching the latest of its digital initiatives with a customer promotions, payment and loyalty app trial.

---

Symbols and Lidl lead value growth in local grocery sector

Symbol retailers and Lidl have once again made the biggest gains in the Northern Ireland grocery market, posting value sales growth of 26% and 20.5% respectively in the latest figures from Kantar.

---

Local SPAR & EUROSPARs pick up UK-wide awards

Five SPAR and EUROSPAR retailers from across Northern Ireland have bagged an array of accolades from two of the top UK-wide retail award schemes.

---

January 2021

Costcutter partners with APPY SHOP for home delivery

Costcutter Supermarkets Group (CSG) has partnered with dedicated online shopping platform APPY SHOP as it continues to expand its successful home delivery offer for retailers.

---

Call for tougher laws to protect shop workers from attack

Concern over increasing attacks on retailers during the Covid-19 pandemic has been raised in Parliament, a development welcomed by The Federation of Independent Retailers (NFRN).

---

Furlough scheme must be extended, says Retail NI

Retail NI has called upon the Chancellor to extend furlough following release of the latest HMRC figures, showing a marked increase to 94,000 workers using the scheme.

---

Lidl NI announces 170 new jobs & Covid-19 staff bonus

Lidl Northern Ireland will recruit more than 170 new employees this year across a variety of operational and office-based roles to support its 40-strong network of stores and regional distribution centre in Nutt’s Corner, Co Antrim.

---

Brexit brings empty shelves to many local shops

Local retailers sourcing significant volumes of produce from Great Britain are bearing the brunt of Brexit, facing cancelled or delayed shipments as their suppliers struggle to comply with new customs declarations under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

---

Getting to grips with the Northern Ireland Protocol

While the Brexit transition period came to an end on December 31, Northern Ireland remains in the EU customs union and grocery shipments here from Great Britain are now subject to customs declarations. How is it going so far?