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NEWS
18 OCTOBER 2024 ASIAN TRADER 7
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Households in the UK have
weathered the worst of the
cost-of-living crisis and can
now expect to see their
disposable income continue
to rise this year, states a new
report.
According to new figures
from Asda’s Income Tracker,
disposable income increased
by 12% year-on-year in
August, the fifth consecutive
month of double-digit
growth. After taxes and
essential spending, the
average UK household had a
disposable income of £247
per week last month,
surpassing the pre cost-of-liv-
ing crisis peak of £246 per
week achieved in March 2021.
While inflation levels have
remained unchanged since
July, inflation on food and
drink slowed to 1.3%. With
prices for essential groceries
continuing to drop, house-
holds can now expect their
spending power to continue
to improve heading towards
Christmas.
However, the data
suggests that the lowest-in-
come households are recover-
ing more slowly and will
continue to feel the impact of
the cost-of-living crisis for a
little longer.
‘Household disposable
income to continue to rise’
Lighting the way
ark times such as the world is currently enduring,
require illumination – and as we look at all the
trouble-spots of the world, it is comforting that
in this country at least, so many people of so many
different origins and beliefs can live together with a truly
amazing degree of harmony.
Diwali, whose influence and engagement spreads
wider every year in the UK, is the perfect example of how
a festival associated with one particular belief can
welcome to its table guests from other backgrounds and
religions, to take part in the spiritual uplift of its celebra-
tions. This is also true of other occasions such as Rama-
dan, Christmas, Vaisakhi or Yom Kippur – each is open in
its imagery and rituals to visitors from other faiths and
traditions, who can join in fellowship and commensality
with worshippers who share space in their communities.
2024 is special in this respect, as it demonstrates
precisely how two different traditions intersect and
come together in a new formulation of meaning and
purpose. By chance, the first day of this year’s Diwali falls
on the same date as the traditional Christian (previously
pagan) festival of All Hallow’s Eve, which is popularly
known as Halloween. Not only that, but the five days of
Diwali end just when another younger but still tradition-
al British celebration – Bonfire Night – explodes onto the
scene.
We need hardly highlight the commercial possibilities
of this cross-selling opportunity for independent retail-
ers, and merely direct you to the Diwali feature in this
celebration issue of Asian Trader to discover all the tips
and ideas you will need to boost holiday sales; and to the
Halloween and Bonfire Night feature to make the most of
those two “book-ending” opportunities.
We hope you enjoy this bumper Diwali issue, which
over time has developed its own tradition of running
several interviews with all sorts of people involved in the
sector – in this issue many areas of experience and insight
are represented, from Nick Wallis, who has been champi-
oning the cause of the sub postmasters for 15 years, to the
wholesale world with Jamie Davison, Director of Retail at
Bestway and Victoria Lockie the new Retail Director at
Unitas, to Kieran Hemsworth, the CEO of industry
charity GroceryAid, which has recently held another
huge and hugely successful D&I in Grocery LIVE! Event in
London.
The clocks go back in a very short time, and this feels
very much like the gateway to winter – not a soggy
miserable winter, however, but more of a sparkling,
snowy winter bonanza of retail colour and sales – let’s
hope that the Autumn Budget Statement, which falls
somewhat ominously on October 30, just one day before
Halloween, has no scary surprises within it.
Many in the industry, such as Helen Dickinson, CEO of
the British Retail Consortium are becoming cautiously
optimistic following a recent uptick in autumn footfall.
It could be that consumers are ready to let their hair down
and reward themselves with some good times this
coming festive season – so let’s do all we can to help them.
Booker, under Tesco, has
integrated a further 397 net
new retail partners in the
fi rst half of this year.
Booker retail partners
now total 7,787 outlets
across Premier, Londis,
Budgens and Family
Shopper.
Operating profi t at the
company, which also owns the
Booker cash and carry business,
rose 13 per cent to £1.61 billion
in the six months to the end of
August, up from £1.43 million
over the same period last year.
Sales across the group grew
by 3.5% over the period to £31.5
billion and like-for-like sales
rose by 2.9%. However, Booker
LFL sales dropped a little (1.9%),
refl ecting a decline in the
tobacco market.
Tesco said it had lowered
prices across its everyday
grocery lines as infl ation
continued to ease.
Commenting on the
numbers, Tesco CEO Ken
Murphy said, “We’ve been
working really hard to of er our
customers the best possible
value, quality, and service and
they are shopping more at Tesco
as a result. We have lowered
prices on thousands of lines,
launched or improved over 860
products in partnership with
our suppliers and growers, and
our customer satisfaction scores
continue to improve across a
broad range of measures.
“The combination of price,
quality and innovation means
we are as competitive as we have
ever been, and we have been the
cheapest full-line grocer for
nearly two years.
“As we approach the
Christmas season, we are
looking forward to sharing the
quality of our festive food with
customers and can’t wait for
them to taste it.
Record numbers recoded for Booker’s ‘Fab Four’
symbol groups
Booker adds 397 new retailers
Booker adds 397 new retailers
as Tesco reports healthy results
as Tesco reports healthy results
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