Bradford on Avon Town Centre Benchmarking – Results

Area designated as Town Centre

Outline of methods used

Brief summary of the 12 key results (KPI)

Some ideas

Something philosophical to share:- “greater common sense" naturally emerges from our deeper wisdom

Town Centre businesses invited to complete the benchmarking study

Ground floor businesses in designated town centre outlined by the following markers:

The Bunch of GrapesThe Grocery BasketOur Green RoomHealth and Dental Practices – Church Street86 Businesses invited to complete survey60 Fully completed and returned

Town Centre users and footfall survey

Interviews conducted near to four sites:Three Gables

Red Post-box in ShamblesMasonic Hall

AllinsFootfall taken on market and non-market

days close to Post Office in Shambles

The method used

AMT Market Town Benchmarking Toolkit 60+ Large & Small Towns took part in 2011 We all captured data on the same 12 KPI’s Comparisons against SW Region, National (over

250) Small (less than 250) Typology analysis – similar towns to BOA Analysis of data and reports after 31st December

A shared endeavour

BoACAN - www.boacan.co.ukMike Reid and team at AMT-i (Research)

WfCAP and Volunteers

Town Council and Area Board interest

‘Town First’ Team

Town Centre Users and Businesses

‘Town First’ TeamCaroline Philpott  TillionsRuth Warren  FetchLee & Christine Orton   OrtonsJackie & Paul Stewart    PihaDean Stacey    Growing NeedsDebbie Harvey    Jumble JellyLois & Robbi Griffin    Our Green

RoomGeorgina Knight  Olive Tree

KPI 1 - Total Numbers of Commercial Units

Class Type Bradford on Avon %

S. West Small

Towns %

National Small Towns

%

Typology %

A1 Shops; all types with shop front

65 55 53 53

A2 Financial Services etc

11 14 14 11

A3 Restaurants, Cafes

9 8 8 10

A4 Pubs, bars etc 5 3 4 4

A5 Takeaways 6 6 5 3

KPI 2 - Convenience/Comparison

Towns Comparison % Convenience

Bradford on Avon 25 75

South West Small Towns

53 47

National Large Towns 72 28

National Small Towns 60 40

Typology 5 56 44

KPI 3 - Key Attractors, Multiple Traders

Type Bradford on Avon %

S. West Small Towns

%

National Small Towns %

Typology %

Key Attractor 0 2 6 5

Multiple 10 18 30 18

Regional 4 9 10 9

Independent 86 71 65 68

Type Bradford on Avon %

S. West Small

Towns %

National Small Towns

%

Typology %KPI Bradford on

Avon %S. West

Small Towns %

National Small Towns %

Typology %

Vacant Units (4) 4 7 9 5

Market Days (5)Traders

18

111

223

145

Zone A Rents ( 6) 22 26 31 39

% Yield 8 8 7 7

KPI’s 4,5,6 Vacant Units, Market Days, Rents and Yields

KPI 8 - Footfall Counts

Town Busy Day Quiet Day

Bradford on Avon 110 80

SW Large Towns n/a n/a

SW Small Towns 64 39

National Large Towns 462 318

National Small Towns 115 83

Typology 5 161 122

KPI 9 - Car Parking Availability and Usage

• A comprehensive audit was taken of all car parks and street parking and whilst there were vacant spaces on both market and non-market days Bradford on Avon showed the lowest average number of vacant places at 54 and 39 respectively of the total of 315 spaces.

• This is an issue that requires further detailed analysis

KPI 10 - Business Confidence

Positive aspects of having a business in the town

Bradford on Avon SW Small Towns Potential local customer 77% 77% Potential tourist customers 64% 48% Prosperity of the town 64% 46% Geographical location 47% 53% Mix of retail offer 32% 35% Environment 34% 26% Transport Links 30% 31%

KPI 10 - Business Confidence

Negative aspects of having a business in the town:

Bradford on Avon SW Small Towns

Car parking 88% 73% Rent/property costs 29% 37% Competition from other towns 29% 30% Competition from internet 25% 26% Local competition 22% 18% Mix of retail offer 18% 23%

KPI 11 - Town Centre User Survey

How long do you intend to stay on this visit to the town %?A B C

Less than 1 hour 35 38 34

1-2 hours 46 44 43

2-4 hours 12 9 12

3-4 hours 2 3 3

4-6 hours 4 4 7

(A) Bradford on Avon (B) Small SW Towns (C) National Small

KPI 11 - Town Centre User Survey Bradford on Avon/SW Small Towns

Male 34% 37% Female 66% 63% 45 and below 26% 31% Over 65 45% 35% Shopping 38% 44% Use of services 23% 25% Eat, drink, leisure 17% 10% Work 8% 12% On foot 54% 39%

KPI 11 -Town Centre User Survey

What are the best aspects of the town: Bradford on Avon SW Small Towns

Physical appearance 77% 31%

Access to services 66% 63%

Restaurants 61% 30%

Near where you live 59% 61%

Transport Links 51% 45%

Ease of walking around 51% 65%

Pubs/bars etc 39% 27%

Shopping 30% 30%

Leisure facilities 29% 17%

Cultural activities 29% 13%

KPI 12 - Shoppers Origin

• 51% postcode covering the town

• 24% postcode less than 30 minutes away

• 25% lived further than 30 minutes away

• Bradford on Avon provides a service centre for the local villages (hinterland)

What next – some ideas

Town Centre strategies and action plans to be more focussed and

effective – Brand BOA – what is it?

Support ‘Town First’ Team and promote ‘Town First’

Evidence base helps applications for funding/awards

Exploit distinct advantages: Physical Aspects, Restaurants, Leisure

and Cultural activities, Service Centre to hinterland?

Collectively promote all speciality shops and services?

Increase employment – Creative Bradford on Avon – Music?

Action for Market Towns

Mike King

Senior Consultant

amt-i

mike.king@towns.org.uk

07818 068982

Action for Market Towns

•Membership Organisation•Case Studies of Good Practice•National Voice of Market Towns•Market Towns Awards•Market Towns Academy•Towns 4 Towns•My Card•amt-i

• Benchmarking• Benchmarking Plus

- Signage Audits- Surveys- Community Consultations- Car Parking Studies- Marketing your Destination Training- Retail Training- Developing Town Centre Partnerships

Why AMT are in BOAIn order to develop/ regenerate we need:•To understand the town, how it performs and what people want………………………..- retail offering- footfall- car parking- business views-town centre users views-non town centre users views-where shoppers come from

How Benchmarking is used to regenerate towns

• Measures your town

- as a one off- year on year to gauge success of

initiatives

Provides an evidence base- to attract funding

Allows you to understand your town- important if developing projects

- perceptions different from reality

Issues for Action Planning in BOA

Town Team: Who should be involved?

•The Team: Town Team could include key landlords, large and small shopkeepers, council representatives with specific knowledge of planning and development, the mayor or MP, other local businesses and service providers, and local residents. •The Leader: The people that lead Town Teams would be these champions of the high street. They would be the high street’s charismatic voice, spearheading a clear local vision for retailing and applying professional management to our high streets.

Aims of the Town Team

From the Portas Review1. Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong

operational management team for high streets

“The one – perhaps the only – thing everybody I have spoken to is agreed on is that for a high street to survive and grow it must have a very clear vision of where it wants to get to. And it needs co-ordinated planning and management to get there. If the high street was in single ownership, like a department store, it would have a vision, a high level strategy and direction, it would choose what it wanted in a particular space to fit with a vision and proactively target the businesses and services that were missing.” (Portas, 2011, p18)

Aims of the Town Team

•harness the local pride, knowledge and skills in order to improve the social, economic and physical well-being of the area•Town Team will provide the middle ground where Local Stakeholders, Local Authorities and Local Residents can meet•To provide a brand for the Town•To provide an achievable vision for BOA over the next 5-10 years in the form of an Action Plan•Short, Medium and Long Terms Aims will be provided•The Action Plan will be grounded in the views, opinions and ideas of local residents and businesses

Who should be involved?

•In addition, armed with a shared vision of the future and shaped by the people who will use their high street, the Town Team could have the power to decide the appropriate mix of shops and services for their area. Anything which doesn’t meet the agreed plan simply wouldn’t be able to go ahead. They would know for example, that too many of one type of shop might blight the street. The feel and future of their towns will be the responsibility of all, rather than at the sole discretion of a planning executive committee. (Portas, 2011, p21)

Southam

Southam

• Section 106•Long winded process• Benchmarking•Call to Action• Development of Town Team- Skill set Audit/ Walk around/ Meetings• Introduction of Structure•Appointment of Board

Southam

• Appointment of Leader•Appointment of Sub Group Leaders•Appointment of Sub Group Teams• Creation of Action Plans• Successes e.g. business training, Orbit, Retro Revival•Failures e.g. losing leader, lack of action from certain groups

Amesbury

•Formal Amesbury Regeneration Partnership

•“One town one vision”

•Neighbourhood Plan

Amesbury

AMT and BOA• Helping Develop your Action Plan• Continued support with Benchmarking• Wider Community Consultations• Exchange Visits to learn from Good Practice• Neighbourhood Plans• Loyalty Schemes• Insurance

Metamorphosis specialise in maximising retail sales potential; by delivering creative, yet practical high quality training and development solutions, ideas and retail concepts to independent retailers.

What we doWe study customers and the influences that are changing the way that they shop and we use this knowledge and insight to predict and uncover Retail Trends...

• Brand Evolution • Retail Skill

Enhancement • Visual Merchandising

Solutions • Retail Design • Retail Vitality Projects

RETAIL VITALITY PROJECTS

Saving the High Street

• Players Retailers who are least trusting of outside support. They tend to focus being on survival rather than success. In order to be successful a mind-set shift

is needed to encourage them to think more commercially and look for new opportunities to improve their business.

• Winners Retailers who want to stay the same size; whilst

beingthe best that they can be.

• GainersRetailers with a clear ambition to grow and evolve

Player, Winner, Gainer Model TM

A new customer has emerged

Why Now ?

Key Elements:• Retail Skills• Retail Vision & Plan• Collaboration

Retail Vitality

Did you know? Only 1/3 of all Independent Retailers in the UK have had previous retail experience.

Retail Skills

PROJECT AIM:to provide businesses with a boost by giving them the opportunity to make the most of their shop and customer service opportunities by

• upgrading the appearance of shop fronts

• providing them with an opportunity to take part in a retail training programme

Midhurst & Selsey, West Sussex Shop Front & Customer Experience Enhancement

Dorking Midhurst

Selsey

On average the project increased sales from between 10 – 30%; with some businesses reporting back with a 100%/54%/35%/34% increase in sales…

The Midhurst Project was awarded with the overall Surrey & West Sussex Region Small Business Friendly Award

Results

Dorking, SurreyCompete on the Street

Dorking

PROJECT AIM:to get retailers fit for 2012. by providing them with:

• A Mystery Shop • A full Training

Programme of Retail Meta-classes

• An In store Follow up • Awards ceremony – to

celebrate success

“The whole exercise is fantastic, I have been in the fashion industry for over 40 years and wasn’t sure how much I would get out of the Master Classes.  But I can honestly say after attending the first two, that they had absolutely cracked it. I have come away feeling like they have put bounce back into me!” Tom Coyne - Ian Munro,

Results

Retail Vision & Plan

“If you don’t know where you are going… any road will do”

Midhurst, West Sussex Future Scoping TM

Dorking

Midhurst

PROJECT AIM:to encourage Midhurst Retailers to work together in collaboration:

• Step 1 Meta-vision TM Building the Vision

• Step 2 Meta-action TM Defining an action plan to achieve the Vision

“The ‘Future Scoping’ event enabled the retailers to work together on solutions for attracting and maintaining footfall, and encouraging people to shop locally.

This is a great way to look at barriers; which to some are seen as obstacles outside of their control, and to others as an ‘open door; It’s only when a group gets together and ‘link up’ to discuss issues, that they come up with positive solutions for breaking down barriers.”...

Results

“Getting retailers together in one place to talk through, what is and isn’t feasible, collaboratively, can endorse what they should be doing. Working collaboratively creates a platform for agreement and involvement and shows everyone that they all need to be involved before anything will happen. It also gets people talking to each other; in our case, some of our Midhurst retailers didn’t know each other before the events. It therefore gave them the opportunity to foster relationships within the town - which now makes the town feel much more like a real community.”

Melanie Burgoyne – The Rural Town Co-ordinator

‘today’s shoppers are looking for a combination of Convenience & Experience...’...the key to meeting their needs is through Collaboration

Collaboration

Horsham & Brighton, Sussex Dressed for Success (our‘ Christmas Campaign’)

Brighton

PROJECT AIM:to raise the profile of Horsham& Brighton’s independent retailers, to engage the public and to create a fabulous customer experience.

• 121 window dressing consultation

• Window Dressing competition

• Awards ceremony – to celebrate success

• One business reported a 10k Increase Thanks to the project

• The Dressed for success campaign was featured in; Sussex Life , The Resident, The County Times , On BBC Radio Sussex , On BBC South/ BBC South East

• Giving each of the Independent Retailers involved publicity that they wouldn’t normally be able to afford.

Results

Pulborough, West Sussex Town Retail Audit

Pulborough

PROJECT AIM:To identify areas of opportunity and innovation through:

• ‘Looking through a customer’s eye’s

• Interviewing the independent retailers

Newspaper Headlines “Pulborough... the only town in West Sussex with no empty retail units”

The Pulborough partnership & SEEDA said that the project had:• Prevented further businesses from closing • Attracted new Retailers to the town • Saved and revived the village post office

Results

Treating your Town as a Department Store

Collaboration

Questions & Answers