Damian Gleeson
22 Oct 2019
The Grant Thornton Retail Excellence Retail Productivity Review provides the most in-depth retail industry and sectoral analysis available today. The Review monitors overall industry performance and sectoral performance. The Review aggregates and analyses data from over 4,500 retail stores in Ireland. Retail Excellence collated data through on-line survey. GfK collated data through “plug-in” to retailer Epos.
September 2019 was the worst performing month since July 2013 recording like for like declines of -3.34%. Almost all sectors across the retail industry contracted during the month with the worst performer being Footwear (-13.08%) and Menswear (-11.02%). The aggressive declines in the Footwear sector were the worst recorded since November 2009. Overall the quarter was a challenging one with July and August posting marginal gains and the quarter as a whole recording a like for like decline of -0.63%. Brexit and general political uncertainty is very negatively impacting consumer sentiment and spending. The sooner a resolution is found the better.
