The group said that the retail industry “shoulders far more than its fair share” of rates bills and that the tax was “leading to store closures.”
The British Retail Consortium has stepped up its battle against business rates, calling for a three-year freeze on increases.
The BRC has now called for the government to freeze rates rises until 2021 to allow for the ‘reinvention’ and modernisation of retailers at a crucial time. It arrives as the UK suffers from the loss of 2,500 retail stores over the last three years.
Retail is responsible for the nearly 25 per cent of the UK’s business rates bills, around £7 billion per year. The Retail Gazette notes that this is despite the sector only making up five per cent of the total economy.
“It is a 20 century answer to a 21 century problem. Retail shoulders far more than its fair share, and the rates bill is leading to store closures and getting in the way of reinvention of our high streets.
‘The BRC is calling on government to freeze business rates until the 2021 revaluation to relive the burden of this unfair tax on retail businesses and allow time for dialogue about the wholesale modernisation of business taxation.
“This would be welcome government support for the country’s largest private sector employer at a critical time.”
Leaders across the retail industry and the government have vocally opposed the business rates tax, including shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey who accused the government of creating a ‘recipe for complete high street annihilation.”
Tesco’s Dave Lewis and The Entertainer’s Gary Grant are among those to have flagged the tax for damaging retail.
Total retail search volumes grew by 27 per cent for second quarter of 2011; mobile search volumes up 216 per cent.
Its annual report has also confirmed a surge in revenue from £158 million to nearly £220 million, while last month staff shared a £5m bonus in anticipation of the results.
“The group has acquired all of the UK stores of House of Fraser, the House of Fraser brand and all of the stock in the business,” it said.
There are a number of trends fueling business growth and profit strategies for hardware device vendors. Today, more and more hardware device vendors are transforming their business models from one-time sales transactions to ongoing relationship-based models with recurring revenue streams. Increasingly, device vendors are leveraging the software within their hardware devices to innovate and differentiate their devices in order to gain a competitive edge and grow their businesses.
What forces are driving these trends? What are the challenges vendors face when transforming their businesses to address these trends? And what can they do to manage the transformation and take full advantage of the opportunities for business growth?
Gemalto’s Director of Product Management, Laila Arad-Allan, addresses these and other questions in her recent interview with SandHill.com.
In terms of pricing and margins, Laila explains that device vendor revenue has traditionally come from the sale of a physical device. As devices have become more and more commoditized, device vendors have had to deal with pricing pressures and lower margins. Intelligent device vendors spend over 70 percent of their development effort in the software that’s embedded in the devices. The software has become the unique selling proposition for devices and provides the real value. However, device vendors won’t gain additional revenue from the value the software provides if they don’t have the ability to charge for and license specific features and functionality.
When talking about end-customer preferences and their perception of value, Laila points out that it is the device vendors’ end customers that are demanding a frictionless customer experience, more budget-friendly ways to purchase, and easy-to-access upgrades. Many customers want the ability to scale up or down based on demand or capacity of their device use. Therefore, device vendors need a way to offer the capabilities and functionalities that their customers value and are willing to pay for, while providing the best possible customer experience.
This is just an overview of the challenges intelligent device vendors face as they transform to selling value. The full interview goes into much more detail and also describes the biggest pitfall vendors need to avoid as they undergo this transition.
Read the full interview to learn how intelligent device vendors are successfully transitioning from selling boxes to selling software-enabled value.
Nonit Sahni is Gemalto’s Technical Product Marketing Manager focusing on product launch management, sales enablement and product content creation for the Software Monetization business unit. Since joining the company in May 2007, he has worked in numerous roles starting with Technical Support to Pre-Sales to Project Management and most recently Product Marketing utilizing the wealth of knowledge he possesses for the company’s Sentinel line of products. He manages the Sentinel Customer Community website, Sentinel technical support blog and the Sentinel Customer Discussion forum.
In his spare time, he enjoys reading about technology and exploring new locations in different parts of the world.
Nonit graduated in May 2006 receiving bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering from ITM University, India.
1. Best practices and emerging challenges associated with software licensing, fulfillment, delivery, and management.
Like most websites, we use cookies here, but we don't share your information. By continuing your visit, you accept the use of cookies. Find out more.Hide Me
Ingredients: Milk, Salt, Start Culture, Enzyme (Non-Animal Rennet). Contains Milk. Keep refrigerated between 1-4°C.
Yep! An intolerance with lactose does not mean you can’t have dairy, despite the common misconception. Our milk is still made from cow’s milk and contains the same essential nutrients as regular milk.
Lactose is simply a naturally occurring sugar found in milk. Our bodies produce something called a lactase enzyme, which helps to digest lactose. We add this enzyme to our products to break down the lactose for you so dairy can be kinder on your tummy.