View From Rob Pryce

Retail, Recession and Reminiscences

2009-10-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks

The Economic and Social Research Council has produced a report on 'Recession Britain' which shows that because of the recession lasting a year and other factors real cuts in public spending is inevitable.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, young people seem to be particularly suffering which is very concerning for the long term. Also, although this has been called a ‘middle class’ recession it seems that, as before, those with low skills are suffering most. Based on evidence from previous recessions it can take up to 5 years for unemployment to fall back to pre-recession levels. Uncertainty and lack of investment seem to imply that recovery could be some way off.

If you've the stomach, you can read more at:
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/PO/releases/2009/september/recessionbritain.aspx

You may have seen in the Herald this week that the City Council is looking to preserve Glasgow's reputation as a retail centre by promoting city centre developments such as the expansion at the St Enoch Centre and discouraging further out of town retail development. This is in light of the continuing decline in demand for city centre retail sites.

On a lighter note here are a few facts related to the St Enoch Centre that you might not know:

- St Enoch was the mother of St Mungo, recognised as the founder of Glasgow. It has also been said that St Mungo was the great nephew of King Arthur (of Camelot fame).

- St Enoch Square was created in 1783 and originally used for grazing sheep. In 1876 the St Enoch Railway Station was opened followed three years later by the St Enoch Hotel (see photo) which was the largest hotel in Glasgow.

- The Teacher Building on St Enoch Square - you may have attended a conference there - was also built in the 1870s and remained the World HQ of Teachers Whisky until 1991.

- The entrance to St Enoch Subway station, now housing a Cafe Nero franchise, was built in 1896. When the station was demolished to make way for the Shopping Centre the rubble was used to fill in the former Queen's Dock in Stobcross, where the SECC is now.

- Work on the first phase of the St Enoch Shopping Centre began in 1986 to be completed by 1989.

Best wishes, Rob

Glasgow West Business Club - Event 2

2009-10-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

Another successful night for the Glasgow West Business Club. I thoroughly enjoyed chairing the event and would like to thank everyone from bringing some energy and enthusiasm to the room!

Jim McColl, Chairman and Chief Executive of Clyde Blowers (www.clydeblowers.co.uk) described his very interesting story from a 16 year old school-leaver with big dreams to a young man who visualised them into real successes. There was something that all business people could take from presentation.

The presentation by Nelson Gray, Chief Executive Firth Ventures was also very insightful. It provided a great framework for small businesses to go about seeking investment from Business Angels and highlighted resources such as LINC Scotland (www.lincscot.co.uk). Nelson's presentation will be downloadable from his website: www.nelsongray.com

As you may have noticed, we took into account the feedback that was given. As I stated before (and will keep saying!) the Business Club has been establish to work FOR the businesses, as they would run it themselves - so conversation is vital to the process. I hope you all appreciated the new layout and order of the night, I think it added to a more relaxed feeling and made for a very successful evening.

The next event is on Tuesday 3rd November and covers employment - providing insight into how to be flexible to succeed in the recession. This should help not only reduce redundancies but also enable you to manage more productive and motivated teams. The speakers for the night include Donald MacKinnon.

I look forward to seeing you all at the next event.

Launch of the Official Rob Pryce Blog!

2009-09-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

From GWRA

Hi Folks

Things are remaining busy here at St Enoch. H&M have been in the last couple of days doing interviews. Yesterday we sent out our first email with vacancies to people registered on the www.stenochworking.com website and since then the Job Matching team have been inundated with enquiries from around 3,000 people!

It also gives me great pleasure to announce the launch of my new blog. This should keep you up to date with things at St Enoch Working but also give you a chance to give your views on what we're doing. We're always happy to learn!

The blog will give you regular updates on what's happening at St Enoch Centre and our efforts to maximise the impact on disadvantaged client groups, i.e. meeting the LOAN agenda. As well as this there'll be updates on other local economic development activities in the Glasgow area. A big thank you to MT at Glasgow South West Regeneration Agency who apart from supporting St Enoch working so vigorously also sent me a TERU report on LOAN in the South West. Among its recommendations are designated account management for employers, setting up mutually beneficial interventions for partners & employers and co-ordinating supply side provision.

Here at St Enoch Working we've progressing with each of these. We're having regular Partner Steering Group meetings and we're agreeing sharing of project management responsibilities between the LRA Network, Jobcentre Plus the Glasgow Works Jobs Brokers. There's understandable enthusiasm from potential employees with so many jobs being promoted at the St Enoch Centre. We're getting a lot of buy in too from the retailers themselves who're seeing the advantages of using the facilities and services we're offering. The areas, as always, which are giving us call for reflection are making sure our target client groups are being put forward for short lists. This involves convincing partners, clients as well as the employers themselves. Your thoughts are particularly welcome on this and you can put your comments here.

Jobcentre Plus came in for some criticism this week from the Federation of Small Business but some of the things FSB are looking for already feature in our partnership with JCP. These include offering information, advice and support to small as well as larger employers throughout the recruitment process including a dedicated website and Job Matching Team.

There have been several commentators stating that the economy is on the road to recovery but we'll need to see whether this is a V or W shaped recession. Unemployment figures were released this week and at 9% the Scottish rate is approaching the UK average. Barnado's Scotland has highlighted something I've mentioned in previous emails about the risks of a lost generation with long term unemployment amongst young people doubling over the last year. Rising unemployment does not help a fast recovery either.

From GWRA

There were some positive aspects highlighted by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion most notably a rise in vacancies with a particular improvement in vacancies that help people off benefits. And while the unemployment rate is still increasing there has also been a fall in the number of new JSA claims.

A final reminder that you can subscribe to my new blog at http://robpryce.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default . I look forward to hearing your views.

Best wishes, Rob

Job Fair for St Enoch

2009-09-11T04:06:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to everyone who helped out at the Jobs Fair last week and to the back office support as well. 58 staff from across the LRA Network, Jobcentre Plus and Glasgow Works helped make it a memorable few days.

An impressive 1,961 people attended and 513 of these were unemployed Glasgow residents. Their details are being sent to the relevant LRAs so they can be followed up and prepared for the upcoming vacancies at St Enoch Centre. One of the interesting factors of the Jobs Fair was the number of young people who heard about it through social networking websites.

The event also got us a lot of interest from employers. H&M are in the unit next week doing interviews and last week we helped Hamleys with their interviews. Pulp and Folli Folliey want us to help them and Game, H&M, BHS, Debenhams and McDonalds all attended the Jobs Fair and provided valuable information and advice to attendees. St Enoch's maintenance company is also keen to work with us and they have security and catering vacancies to fill.

From GWRA

There was further positive news about Glasgow's economy this week. Experian who are commercial property specialists announced that Glasgow has fewer vacant retail units than rival cities in the North of England and the Midlands and their view is that long term consumer spend will continue to rise. Hays, one of Britain's largest recruitment agencies, believes that the British jobs market is starting to stabilise.

The announcement of a 'Team Scotland' approach by Alex Salmond, First Minister and Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy, is a positive sign that politicians are willing to work together to minimise the worst of the recession. One key factor is the effectiveness of linking opportunities that will arise from developments like St Enoch with the needs that remain in some of our most disadvantaged communities. Further information on best practice in the LOAN approach can be found attached http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/232769/0063874.pdf <http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/232769/0063874.pdf> .

Best wishes, Rob

Glasgow West Business Club

2009-09-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

The West of Glasgow Business Club aims to support and enhance the Entrepreneurial Spirit within the West of Glasgow to enable Businesses to grow their aspirations and give mutual support to each other. Last night was the first event on the calender focused on sales and marketing: "Adapting Your Services To Increase Your Market And Sales Speakers".

From GWRA

I am pleased to say it was a great success thanks to some fantastic guest speakers: Chris Tiso, Jane Wylie-Roberts and the partners from FennonMcrae (as well as some tasty food at the Hilton). I am now thoroughly looking forward to the next installment which will be taking place on October 1st. The topic for this is "Innovating Your Finances –Loans, Grants and Equity Funding" which is particularly relevant to today's economic climate. With speakers like Jim McColl (Clyde Blowers) and Nelson Gray (Firth Ventures), it should be another interesting evening.

Sign ups are continuing online at www.glasgowwestbusinessclub.com, where information is also regularly updated.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes, Rob.

View from St Enoch: Update

2009-08-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

From GWRA

Hi Folks

Next week see’s the official launch of St Enoch working with Steven Purcell. That’s on Thursday morning and all the retailers at St Enoch have been invited along with the other LRAs and our partners. This is followed by the Jobs Fair. Last year 1,400 people attended so we should be kept busy!

A view from one of Scotland’s leading shop fitters, Havelock Europa, is that the outlook is very negative for the retail sector but you may also have seen the Evening Times article on Jane Harrison, the new City Centre Initiative Manager at Glasgow City Council. She will be looking to build on Glasgow’s success over the last 10 years and the co-ordinated effort she is encouraging can only be good for retailers at St Enoch and elsewhere in countering the effects of the recession.

Another reason for being positive is Glasgow’s ability to attract people from abroad and elsewhere in the UK. Did you know, for example, that in 2008 Glasgow attracted more international conference delegates than any other British city? That’s got to be good for business.

The Enterprise team has recognised that there is a need for increased support for small businesses particularly in these difficult times. Next week we’re launching a new Business Club for the West of Glasgow. We’re supporting it for the first year and there are speakers on Entrepreneurial issues as well as specialists on marketing, finance etc. The aim is to establish a club that the businesses will run themselves and over the next few months we’ll be establishing a Steering Group to provide direction to the Club. You can find out more at www.glasgowwestbusinessclub.com.

You’ve probably seen in the news that Tesco’s Personal Finance division is looking to create 800 Customer Service Centre jobs in Glasgow City Centre by mid 2010. This is a strong indication that despite the credit crunch Glasgow is building on its strong position as a centre for banking and finance jobs.

Best wishes, Rob

P.S. There was considerable evidence from a recent Scottish Government sponsored conference that the area based approach to employability is still the way to go. See http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/fairer-scotland-fund/EvidenceEvent for more information.

View From St Enoch

2009-08-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

From GWRA

Hi Folks

We’re not quite into our unit at St Enoch yet but thought I’d give you a little update

The news is still full of doom and gloom about the economy with the latest unemployment figures up again

** UK jobless total climbs to 2.4m **

The number of people out of work in the UK has risen by 220,000 in the three months to June to the highest level since 1995.

< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/business/8196549.stm >

In this light developments at St Enoch take on added significance. I managed to get a meeting with the HR Manager of Hamleys next week. Hopefully we can get a few jobs for our clients. It’s also good to build a relationship with them because of their likely significance to the City Centre.

Other good news in the City Centre included the launch of Glasgow’s Style Mile which looks to build on Glasgow’s already significant reputation as a shopping destination. Did you know, for example, that Glasgow is the only UK city outside London to feature in the top 20 European Retail Rankings?

See http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/News/GlasgowStyleMileLaunch.htm

Best wishes, Rob

P.S. Further details of the current economic situation including the Inclusion Report for August 2009 on the UK Labour Market can be found in the Management folder (under the Labour Market Information file).