News

Convenience retailers and MPs from around the UK have come together at the annual Association of Convenience Stores Heart of the Community Reception to celebrate the role of apprentices in the convenience sector.

Speaking at the reception, Small Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst MP recognised the importance of convenience stores to local communities, especially in rural and isolated areas where the interaction between colleagues in stores and their customers plays an important role in reducing loneliness.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has called on Ministers and MPs to ensure that plans to introduce a deposit return scheme in England and Wales are workable for small shops.  

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to a call for evidence from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to help inform the National Food Strategy, highlighting the crucial role that convenience stores play in providing food to their local communities.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed a Citizens Advice report and renewed calls for Ofgem to protect microbusinesses.

The report from Citizens Advice found that microbusinesses have few protections when buying energy services and experience issues with debt and contract issues caused by minority of third party intermediaries (TPIs).

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to a report from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee on the Future of the Post Office Network.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We are pleased the Inquiry has recognised that rising operating costs faced by retailers make hosting a Post Office more challenging. Leaving local shops to offset reductions in Government’s subsidies is unsustainable and won’t deliver the Post Office network that people need in their communities.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is reminding convenience retailers about the upcoming migration of the UK’s telephone network from public switched telephone network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.

The change aims to ensure that the UK’s landline services are ‘fit for the future’ and the transition will be straightforward for the majority of customers but some may require additional support from their communications providers to assist them with updating their services.

ACS’ Security Showcase, taking place in Manchester from 10am-1pm, provides retailers with a chance to hear from experts about the latest developments in crime prevention equipment and how it can be used to protect their business.

The event builds on ACS’ Crime Report, “It’s Not Part of the Job” campaign with the Home Office, and ongoing political lobbying to get better support for retailers and their colleagues.

The Association of Convenience Stores has launched new Assured Advice for retailers on what to consider when providing water refills in store.

The guidance sets out the different ways that retailers can provide a water refill service in store, as well as highlighting some of the challenges of offering this service, especially for stores where there is only one member of staff behind the till.

Key information in the guidance includes:

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is calling on the Welsh Government to consider and clarify the impact on small shops of their ‘Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales’ Strategy, published today.

Today (17^th October) the Welsh Government published its ‘Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales’ Strategy which sets out their national ambitions to prevent and reduce obesity in Wales by delivering healthy settings and environments to allow people of all ages to make healthy choices by 2030. 

ACS has responded to new figures from the Office for National Statistics’ annual Crime Survey for England and Wales, urging retailers to report incidents of shop theft to the police.

According to the ONS survey, which covers the whole of retail, the number of police recorded shop theft incidents for the year ending June 2019 decreased by 4% to 368,745 offences.