In an innovative new partnership with G by Grant Thornton, information hub Inside Retail have teamed up to create the Retail Growth Programme ? a brand-new year-long initiative to support independent business owners.
Businesses who receive support from Grant Thornton have grown two to four times faster than the market average. This pioneering partnership was recently launched at Spring Fair, the UK?s leading gift and home trade event, with a series of one-to-one Meet the Expert sessions. These saw a broad range of dynamic business owners come together to meet experts from Grant Thornton to discuss the current challenges they face and how they can overcome them to successfully grow their businesses.
Following a period of uncertainty for the retail industry, the outlook is positive with high-street footfall and sales figures on the up. By combining the business acumen of Grant Thornton?s professionals with Inside Retail?s market knowledge, the project will give independent retailers a programme of activity that can help them achieve rapid growth over the coming year.
Lou Williams, regional manager at Grant Thornton, headed up several of the one-to-one Meet the Expert sessions at Spring Fair. She commented: ?One of the most common challenges facing independents is that they don?t have time to take a step back and see the big-picture. Instead of continually trading on a day-to-day basis, owners of businesses who have outperformed the market will make time to stand in the shoes of the customer from the very beginning.
?In a year that has already seen major retailers including Amazon and John Lewis introduce innovations to enhance the customer experience, independent retailers can follow suit in order to cut through. Successful businesses put marketing at the top of the agenda. Here at Grant Thornton we help business owners to segment their customers into profiles that will strategically enable growth. Business owners can?t do everything, we step in to help focus the business and enable them to do less, while achieving more.?
The launch of the Retail Growth programme builds upon the success of the existing growth support services by G, which enables businesses to achieve their ambitious plans for growth. Grant Thornton has helped thousands of companies grow and outperform in their market through the provision of insights, coaching, expertise and relevant connections.
Kevin Galtrey, managing director at Peony, a UK-based wholesale accessories business, is one of the companies that G is currently working with to support the company?s growth, he commented: ?We established Peony about 12 years ago and after a series of rapid growth we came to a point where this started to tail off. G has provided us with invaluable advice, particularly when it comes to drilling down into our list of complex priorities to deliver realistic targets. Working with G has enabled us to focus on key areas of growth, particularly online and it has introduced us to several industry leading experts ? contacts we would have struggled to connect without the partnership. The advice we?ve received has been invaluable and we?re delighted with the direction in which our company is growing.?
Phil Boas, brand director at Ascential Events, which manages the Inside Retail hub, commented: ?This project will deliver invaluable content to independent retailers in the UK. We have no doubt that it will significantly increase the number of businesses that achieve their growth ambitions and avoid the common pitfalls that may result in failure.?
Visit www.InsideRetail.com to find out more about the Retail Growth Programme.
