Investment in local UK shops hit record highs over the last year as convenience store retailers look to futureproof their businesses.
Over the past year, convenience retailers spent a combined £1bn, up from £646m in the previous 12 months, on refitting stores, installing new energy efficient refrigeration and lighting, and detecting and preventing crime.
The findings, which come from the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) 2024 Local Shop Report, showed this investment figure is the highest on record since the report’s inception in 2012.
Of the 50,387 stores in the convenience sector, 71% of these are run by independent retailers and more than half (56%) of independent retailers fund investment from their own reserves.
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In adapting to new technology and methods, the report also found that more than one in six convenience stores (17%) now have a self-service till, up from just 3% in 2019.
Almost half (47%) of independent retailers also offer some from of home delivery or click-and-collect service.
Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said: “The convenience sector continues to demonstrate its importance to the UK economy at both a local and national level, as a vehicle for investment, as a job creator, and as a means of generating over £9bn in tax income for the Treasury.
“The investment figures we’ve seen this year are not surprising, as retailers tell us that they’re futureproofing their stores in two main ways.
“Firstly through hardware like efficient refrigeration, self-service tills and electronic shelf edge labels to increase the productivity of the business, and secondly through an increasingly diverse range of services like cash machines, banking services, Post Offices, prescription collections and dry cleaning – all services that previously would have taken their own place on the high street but are being brought under one roof to ensure that local people still have access to them.”
