Retail bosses’ gloom grows pre-Brexit

The bosses of Britain’s biggest retailers are the most gloomy they have been in the past six years about the sector as concerns about Brexit intensify.

The majority of those chairing the country’s 34 leading businesses said they do not know what Brexit will mean for their business (90%) and are not prepared for it (80%), according to headhunter Korn Ferry’s latest survey.

“We are dancing in the dark as we just don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Boohoo’s chairman Peter Williams. The stark findings, echoed by the likes of retail veteran Richard Pennycook, chairman of Fenwick and the Hut, as well as Tesco’s John Allan and David Tyler of Sainsbury’s, come a week after the boss of Next, Lord (Simon) Wolfson, warned of the risks of ports grinding to a halt if Britain crashed out of the EU with no deal. “The tumult matters because retail isn’t a sideshow. Its success is central to the vitality of the economy,” said Korn Ferry’s Sarah Lim.

Another gripe, which emerged from the survey days after business secretary Greg Clark said ministers may consider overhauling business rates to reinvigorate the High Street, is that the government isn’t doing enough to help the retail sector (93%), with high business rates being a recurring concern.

Matt Davies, N Brown’s chairman, said: “[The government] is as cold towards business as I’ve ever seen it.”