Bright spots emerge in high street shops survey

Date: 29th July 2009

Smaller retailers faced slow sales across July, new figures from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) indicate.

According to the business group, 15 per cent more retailers felt that sales had fallen, rather than increased, over the past year when compared to the 12 months previous.

Meanwhile, 32 per cent more people said that sales were "poor for the time of year" this month.

However, there was good news elsewhere on the survey - with grocers, footwear and leather goods sellers all seeing growth over the past year.

This strongly suggests that small shop owners in some sectors are doing much better than those in others.

Andy Clarke, chairman of the CBI distributive trades panel, also accentuated the positive in comments accompanying the report.

"Many retailers are having a difficult summer and no pick-up is expected in August," he said.

"But the overall sales falls are not as heavy as we saw at the start of the year, and some retail sectors are reporting growth."

Elsewhere in the CBI survey, 13 per cent more traders said that they experienced a fall, rather than a rise, in the volume of orders over July.