This is the highlighted edition of the Holywell Business Newsletter. If you would like a full copy, please contact Medwyn Robert, Holywell Town Centre Manager at med@impactcom.biz

Holywell Business News is financed and produced by Holywell Town Council and its purpose is to provide town centre businesses with useful business information. It is mailed direct to every town centre business and to the head or regional office of every business that is a branch of a larger organisation. It is also mailed to various members of staff at Flintshire County Council’s Economic Development Department and officers in other organisations involved in urban regeneration.

Did you know that erecting, maintaining and dismantling Holywell’s Christmas lights now costs around £9,000 a year and that it is organised and financed by Holywell Town Council?

TESCO

The provisional opening date of the the new Tesco store is Monday 18 February. Are you ready?

The monthly footfall counting exercise being undertaken by the Holywell town centre manager on behalf of Flintshire County Council has shown that the number of people entering and leaving the town centre via Victoria Square has increased by an average of 240% since Lidl opened in comparison to a footfall count carried out in the same place prior to the opening.

When Tesco opens there’s likely to be a similar increase in people entering the town centre via Tower Gardens and Upper Station Road. If they like what they see, they’ll keep coming. If they don’t, they probably won’t. So, maybe now is the time for owners and managers of town centre businesses to think of things they can do to make their business as attractive as possible to these new potential customers.

A list of ideas compiled by town centre manager, Medwyn Roberts, based on discussions with shopkeepers in towns where supermarkets have opened recently and on internet research, was included in the Autumn 2006 issue of this newsletter and we include it again with this issue in case you would like to explore any of the ideas.

Lidl

The wording for the sign to be paid for and erected by Lidl in their car park urging people visiting the store to also make linked visits to other town centre shops (announced in the Autumn 2007 issue of this newsletter) has now been decided.

It will say: ‘Thank you for shopping at Lidl. Now, while you’re in Holywell, why not visit some of the other town centre shops’.

The sign will be bilingual and will carry the Lidl and Holywell Town Council crests. It is hoped the new sign will be manufactured and erected by the end of January 2008.

Holywell Town Council, via its town centre manager, Medwyn Roberts, is also in discussion with Tesco about having a similarly worded sign erected in their store or car park in readiness for the opening of the store.

Internet Marketing

Although the internet can provide small businesses with an additional shop window, widen their customer base and enable them to compete on an equal footing with bigger firms and out of town shopping centres etc, many are still reluctant to take this step to greater prosperity.

For those Holywell town centre businesses thinking about it but which haven’t yet made the first move, we include an article entitled Stalling on e-stores, about the benefits of online trading with this issue of Holywell Business News that might convince those businesses to explore this option further. Interested? Want to know more? If so, contact town centre manager manager, Medwyn Roberts on 01745-710333 or at med@impactcom.biz for an informal and confidential chat about how your business can capitalise on e-commerce.

As well as being Holywell’s town centre manager, Medwyn is a qualified and successful marketing and public relations consultant who has been running his own business, Impact Communications (Wales) Ltd, since 1989.

Business Rates relief

Following representations made to the town centre manager by owners of several Holywell businesses about a recent reduction in trade they were experiencing that they thought was as a result of the temporary closure of some of the town’s car parks, a joint Holywell Town Council/Holywell Chamber of Commerce meeting was arranged at which a representative from the Rating Valuation Office Agency explained what rate relief options might be available to businesses as a result of this.

Unfortunately, although the meeting, held on Monday 19 November was well advertised by the Chamber of Commerce,

only nine people attended and since then only five businesses have applied for temporary short-term business rates relief or a business rates revaluation.

If your business is suffering short-term hardship which you believe is being caused by the current car parking situation or wish to apply for a business rates review, further details and an application form to do so can be obtained by contacting Mr Peter Jones, Chairman of the Holywell Chamber of Commerce on 01352-713690 or 07949-334446, or by contacting Ms Helen Zammit-Willson at the Rating Valuation Office Agency on 01978-200002.

Business Healthcheck

Flintshire County Council has appointed consultants to carry out a healthcheck survey in five Flintshire towns including Holywell. The aim of the exercise is to consult as widely as possible with residents and other stakeholders in the town about the current health of the town as a place to live, work and run a business, and to seek their views about improvements they would like to see take place.

When it has been completed, the report will be used as a tool in support of applications for funding from the Welsh Assembly Government, Europe and other funding sources to finance projects identified in the report that will benefit the town.

If you wish to have the opportunity of making your views known when the time is appropriate, contact Holywell Chamber of Commerce if your business is a member. If not, contact town centre manager, Medwyn Roberts, who will explain how to register an interest in making your views known.

A thought provoking statement

According to Ipsos Mori online research carried out in April 2007, 58% of the British public agree that they are more likely to choose one retailer over another if they know it takes its social and envionmental responsibilities seriously

Are you prepared?

According to research carried out by the British Retail Consortium, violence against shop staff increased by 50% during 2006. Research concluded that an average of six incidents of physical violence per 1,000 employees were reported during the year and that during the same period there were 16 incidents of verbal abuse per 1,000 shop workers.

The research also showed that losses from detected theft – where the thief was caught and prosecuted – rose by 8.5% to £205 million over the year. Frighteningly, the research also showed that many small family-owned shops did not know what their losses were as a result of theft because they did not have an effective stock control system in place and that this hidden cost is affecting the profit levels and even the viability of many small shops.

Holywell tourism brochure

Holywell Town Council is again planning to spend about £1,700 to print 20,000 copies of the Holywell tourism brochure for 2008 to attract more visitors to the town to help generate more trade for Holywell businesses.

The more leaflets that are produced the further afield they can be distributed. It only costs £30 to produce an extra 1,000 brochures. Are you prepared to invest £30 to attract more visitors to Holywell? If so, contact town centre manager, Medwyn Roberts on 01745-710333 for more information.

A similar appeal was made in the Winter 2006/2007 issue of Holywell Business News to finance more copies of the 2007 brochure. Regrettably, on that occasion, there weren’t any offers of support.