Press Releases

Book your place at the ACS Crime Seminar, taking place on 10^th March, from 9:30am to 12pm at the Conrad St James Hotel in Westminster.

The Crime Seminar will begin with the launch of ACS’ Crime Report 2020 and will give an exclusive first look at the findings before a discussion with a panel of police, retailers and industry experts.

ACS has set out its recommendations to the Chancellor ahead of the 2020 Budget on March 11^th, calling for changes to policies on business rates, crime and employment costs to help boost the UK’s 46,000 local shops.

In the submission, ACS has urged the Government to give local shops and other small businesses the green light to invest without facing an increase in their rates bills as a result. Convenience stores invested £558m in their businesses in the year to November 2019, but this was down almost a quarter on the previous year.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) and SGF (the Scottish Grocers Federation) have issued a joint call to MSPs urging them to retain the Uniform Business Rate, highlighting the impact that it would have on convenience retailers if business rates were devolved.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to a call for views launched by the Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee on the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Bill.

The Bill aims to increase protection for retail workers by:

The Government has confirmed that it will re-introduce the Environment Bill to Parliament, kick starting debate on the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme, reform of the PRN System and a new levy on single use plastics. 

ACS has warned that the legislation will pose operational challenges for local shops, especially around the details of a Deposit Return Scheme which would require retailers to take back drinks containers in stores. ACS is working closely with Defra to shape the proposals.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is reminding retailers about the upcoming ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes which comes into force in less than four months.

The European Union Revised Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) makes it an offence for manufacturers to produce menthol cigarettes and retailers to sell menthol cigarettes from 20^th May 2020.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has called for the police chiefs and the government to make tackling violence a top priority. ACS has also warned that new figures from the Office for National Statistics’ annual Crime Survey for England and Wales vastly underestimate the level of shop theft - which is linked to violent incidents.  

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is working with the Alzheimer’s Society to create 25,000 Dementia Friends in the convenience sector to help customers, colleagues and communities affected by dementia.

As part of the campaign, ACS is running a number of regional face-to-face training events which are free for members to attend.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is calling on people working in convenience stores to provide their views on employment in the sector as part of the 2020 Colleague Survey.

The survey explores colleagues’ experiences of working in the sector, looking at the pressures they face, career paths, other commitments and the benefits of working in the convenience sector.

Now in its fifth year, the ACS Colleague Survey:

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has reiterated calls to the Government to take urgent action to tackle violence toward and abuse shopworkers, highlighting the human impact that these incidents have.

In a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday (14^th January) the Prime Minister called for Whitehall Departments to focus on tackling crime, stating that “every department should consider itself a criminal justice department” as part of the focus to tackle the “complex causes of crime”.