RETAIL IRELAND URGES ACTION ON RENTS - Shopkeepers say sales will continue to fall over the next three months, according to a survey by IBEC's Retail Ireland. A third of those who took part in the survey rated business as poor or very poor; half rated it as average, while just 18% said business was good. The outlook for jobs in the sector is also poor, with 10% of those questioned expecting to lay people off this summer, and more employers saying they are considering it.
Retail Ireland's director Torlach Denihan says that the survey was carried out to assess the situation in view of developments such as the decline in cross border shopping and the slight improvement in the consumer confidence index. The survey is representative of the entire retail sector. Mr Denihan says that retailers are predicting a very gradual improvement and adds that most think employment levels will remain static.
He says that retailers have cut prices in an effort to encourage consumers to shop more and he points out that food prices have come down by 7%, while clothing prices have fallen by 12%. He says that prices have been falling for over a year. But he urges landlords now to take the next step by introducing voluntary rent reductions in the interest of lower prices for consumers and saving retail jobs.
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MORNING BRIEFS - British Airways cabin crew are set for a five-day strike this week after the airline and union leaders failed to resume talks yesterday, blaming each other for breakdown of the talks. Today sees the first of three, five-day protests planned in response to BA's cost-cutting drive will go ahead. The airline's pre-tax losses reached £1 billion sterling over the last two years, and to address this its chief executive Willie Walsh has been trying to change the company's cost base.
*** 50 new jobs over the next two years have been announced at internet security firm Webroot, which is setting up its international headquarters in Dublin. Webroot develops internet security solutions for consumers and businesses. The new jobs are in sales, marketing, engineering, inventory and customer support.
*** This weekend the Bank of Spain seized control of CajaSur, a savings bank controlled by the Catholic church in Córdoba, in the latest sign of the difficulties faced by the Spain's savings and loan institutions after the collapse of the housing bubble. CajaSur will be recapitalised with more than €500m from the new Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring,
*** On the currency markets the euro is trading at $1.2488 cents and 86.38 pence sterling.
