Featured Sector: Retail

Over the last five years retailers have had to respond to the challenges of both persistently weak consumer expenditure and structural changes to where, how and on what households spend their incomes. These twin challenges have together shaped the pattern of retail construction activity in recent years.

Whilst consumer confidence is returning and retail sales are on the rise, the retail sector continues to face challenging structural changes that are expected to limit the support to retail construction activity from the rise in consumer confidence. The current problems and retrenchment faced by the top four supermarkets, until recently a major source of retail construction activity, is testament to shifting pattern of consumer demand.

The underlying value of project starts slipped back 8% last year, although the number of projects starting on site has been on the rise with refurbishment and fit-out projects accounting for an increasing proportion of work in the sector.

Looking ahead larger new build projects will remain in short supply during 2015. This is in large part due to the top four supermarket chains scaling back their investment programmes and redirecting funding towards the convenience store market, which more often entails conversion of existing high street premises. Other high street retailers are also focusing on store re-modelling, driven by high levels of competition and efforts to accommodate click and collect services.

Encouragingly, improved economic outlook has seen some town centre regeneration schemes being brought back into development. However it will be late 2015 and 2016 before these types of projects begin to have a large impact on overall workloads.