Retailers weather wage increases

The majority of booksellers’ profitability has not been hit by the increase in the minimum wage which was implemented in April 2016. Responding to a question in The Bookseller’s Independents Christmas Trading Survey, many retailers said they were paying above the national minimum wage, which was upped to £7.20 per hour last year.

However, a few said they had been affected, and warned about the next increase, in April of this year. “It has been another cost increase, in addition to a 23% increase in and an 18% increase in rent,” one bookseller said. “So although we had a good Christmas sales-wise, I have still made less profit. When the minimum wage goes up again this year I will probably have to cut my staff hours.”

Another added: “I have had to reduce my staff[’s working] hours in order not to impact costs unsustainably.”

While booksellers may have experienced rising costs in terms of wages, the threat business rates of e-books has diminished in 2016, most indies reported.

Some 59% thought the threat of competition from digital reading had receded, although 40% reckoned it remained the same. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the Publishers Association reported that trade publishers’ digital revenues were 19% down in the first six months of the year, no indie respondents believed the threat posed by e-books was greater than at this point last year.