July 18 2006

New 'retail think tank' sees "fragile and nervous" times ahead for retailers

KPMG and SPSL (the people who count store visitors: think 'web analytics' but for people) have jointly formed a new 'retail think tank'. The nine insightful and knowledgeable members see that the coming months will be 'fragile and nervous'. This seems to be a code for "there's a growing unease, but no-one's got a tangible reason. Yet".

In addition to their already-active Retail Practice, KPMG have teamed up with SPSL - the "people counting" business (with flash movie home page) - to form (drum roll) the KPMG/SPSL Retail Think Tank. Thankfully, the chirpy press release allows us to refer to it as RTT after the first mention, without causing offence. Phew.

The result of their first deliberations can be seen from SPSL's summary of the meeting which can be further summarised as "demand weakening, costs increasing - especially staff and energy, and opportunities for further cost-cutting reduced".

Ian Jindal