Businesses are accused of playing a 'waiting game'

TOO many businesses in Burton are playing a ‘waiting game’ and not acting quickly enough to fight the poor economic climate, a retail chief has warned.

Paul Howard Burton town centre manager, made his warning as it was revealed retail figures last month were 4.4 per cent higher than a year ago.

But figures released from the National Office for Statistics, showed that there had only been a two per cent growth in high street sales.

The rest of the rise was due to an explosion in food and fuel costs.

Mr Howard told the Mail: “At first glance, the retail figures appear to be very pleasing and in a sense they are.

“According to the report, overall retail sales in January 2012 have grown from the same period last year by 4.4 per cent, an increase of around £1 billion, but this doesn’t give a true reflection of what is actually happening on the high street and in our shopping centres.

“When you look at the figures behind this report, you see that much of the increase comes from food retail with 1.9 percentage points coming from this sector alone.

“Online retailing is up by 13 per cent from last year but as a reflection on the size of the retail sector, this only affects the overall sales by 0.6 per cent. Fuel sales which are also included in this report saw a whopping increase of 8.5 per cent which explains another 0.9 per cent.”

Mr Howard added: “Predominantly non-food stores are showing a one per cent increase overall, so the good news is there but you have to look for it and the same can be said locally.

“There are businesses thriving but there are those that are not adapting quickly enough to the changing wants, needs and aspirations of the consumer. Many are playing a waiting game to ride out the bad times but they really do need to look again at what they offer and be highly selective in what they are bringing to their stores to make sure they come out on the other side.”