It’s been interesting seeing the first results from December with Next and John Lewis reporting strong sales and Debenhams struggling. I’m no retail expert but in the world of F&B you generally find that the stronger brands with a good value proposition do quite well, the brands which are positioned at the value end of the market also do ok. It’s the brands that sit between these two points that tend to have the hardest time. This was my experience at SSP where I had a bunch of worthy but middle of the road brands that did a reasonable job of providing decent quality food and an ok customer experience but which could not compete with high street brands who were able to inspire a lot of loyalty.
Sadly I have Alex crawling all over me trying to get at my iPad so I will continue this post later today!
random outpourings 