New life to be breathed into tired brands

Jun 11 2008 by Bill Gleeson, Liverpool Daily Post

SAYERS the Bakers and Ethel Austin share something in common.

As well as being local firms that have gone bust, both are tired brands that have been left behind by consumer trends and rivals in their respective market places.

Primark has swamped the no-frills end of the shopping market, while Subway and rival Greggs have gobbled up the cheap end of the bakery and sandwich shop market.

In the case of Sayers, the most recent of these two insolvencies, the problem wasn’t that people stopped buying sandwiches at lunch time: the huge growth in Subway nationally and Philpotts locally provide evidence of that.

Instead, the product on the shelves or in the display counters didn’t move with the times. Sausage rolls and cream cakes don’t suit the increasingly health- conscious public.

What’s more, Subway’s shops are open at more convenient hours, even in the early hours of the morning in places where the night-time economy is strong.

On the other hand, both Sayers and Ethels hold something else in common: both have been rescued by new investors willing to have another go at making these businesses work. Despite the fact consumer tastes seem to have moved against the companies, existing management have succeeded in raising the money to rescue the majority of Sayers and Ethel Austin shops from extinction. Surely, though, to have any future at all, the new owners of both will have to introduce levels of innovation that have previously been missing from these firms.

HOW badly will the combined impact of the credit crunch and high oil prices hurt Merseyside’s economy.

Jim Gill, chief executive of the city’s economic development and business support agency, Liverpool Vision, recently said the region was well placed to get through the current traumas without too many bruises.

Yet, just this week, the University of Glasgow has published a study that predicts many of Britain’s regional cities will share London’s pain from the downturn in financial markets. Certainly, it is predictable there will be slower growth and job losses in the financial services sector – a sector which has fuelled much of the renaissance in the commercial districts of Britain’s regional city centres in the past decade.

One local sign of this is the recent decision by HSBC to call off plans to close its out-of-date building on the corner of Dale Street and Castle Street and move its commercial and retail banking staff to new premises in Liverpool city centre. Now only the retail side will move, while commercial banking stays put at Dale Street. The need to save costs in the face of the credit crunch is undoubtedly behind the change of mind.

Any economic down- turn will be temporary. The slowdown may last a few years, but things will pick up again. In the meantime, though, there is bound to be some pain, so brace yourselves.

ANYBODY who has had cause to travel through Manchester at rush hour will know that the city’s roads are congested and trains packed with commuters.

In return for a modest congestion charge for rush hour road users, the city council and other local boroughs have secured a deal with government that will result in huge invest- ment in the area’s transport infrastructure.

Nearly £3bn is to be spent. It’s the sort of sum that should make a big difference to the quality of life of Mancunians.

The fact that Manchester has achieved the ambitions contained in its transport plan puts the local leadership on this side of the M6 in the shade. More’s the pity.