Retail entrepreneur and former ‘dragon’ Theo Paphitis has been a regular keynote speaker at Autumn Fair over the past two years, and prophetically told delegates last September that, with so much changing around us, we needed to “brace ourselves for a seismic change in the retail industry.” At the time, he could not have imagined a coronavirus pandemic, but his words today hold a new significance.
Speaking to BBC News recently, he stated: “Retail will never, ever be the same again.” Reflecting on the accelerated shift in consumer behavior to online shopping, he said that he had observed this through his own retail businesses, that include Rymans, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue, predicting that the lockdown has “accelerated the whole transition by five years.”
He anticipates less footfall on high streets when shops reopen, adding that his own retail empire will have fewer stores and a bigger online business going forward.
Commenting on the need to adapt physical stores in order to create more business, Theo said that he is confident that – although facing a huge challenge – his enterprises would emerge as stronger new businesses.
He highlighted that the two cost elements that need to change for all bricks and mortar stores are rents and business rates, stressing that the chancellor “has no option but to overturn business rates” in order for high streets to survive.
Top: Theo Paphitis is shown in conversation at Autumn Fair with Grace Bowden, head of content at Retail Week.
