GroceryAid provides a confidential Helpline which is available 24/7 to assist callers across a wide range of subjects, from financial to personal issues. For people who prefer not to call in, there is a web-based range of self-help tools and advice, including online chat.
ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has confirmed the appointment of Paul Hagon and Patrick Sewell as chairman and deputy chairman respectively.
Paul and Patrick will take on leadership roles on the ACS Management Board from 1 November 2014, replacing current chairman Jonathan James and Vice Chairman Neil Turton who have been in post since November 2011.
Paul Hagon is the Group Strategy and Development Director for Palmer and Harvey. P&H is one of the biggest delivered wholesale providers in the UK, serving multiple, convenience, forecourt and CTN stores.
ACS has published three new guides that form the latest additions to its Assured Advice scheme for convenience retailers. The new Guides provide definitive advice on Weights and Measures, Product Safety and Fair Trading.
ACS Assured Advice is an innovative new scheme that allows ACS to provide advice on trading standards regulation that is definitive and cannot be challenged or changed from on local authority to the next.
The Guides include:
ACS’ annual political conference, Heart of the Community, took place in Westminster, London on 21st October. The event, chaired by journalist Daisy McAndrew, gave over 100 convenience store retailers the chance to hear how politics affects their businesses and provided a platform for them to speak directly to MPs about day-to-day issues.
On Tuesday 21st October, ACS held its first ever Technology Showcase. The event exhibited a selection of the very best innovations in technology available to convenience store retailers to help improve and benefit their business.
ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to the Work and Pensions Select Committee into the auto enrolment pension scheme, raising concerns about the impact of the plans on the smallest businesses and their staff.
The seventh annual ACS Heart of the Community conference will be taking place on Tuesday 21st October from 12.00pm – 3.30pm.
The conference, held in Westminster, brings retailers from across the country together with MPs and Ministers to discuss important issues facing local shops.
Planning minister Brandon Lewis MP has admitted that Government does not monitor the effectiveness of planning rules designed to promote investment in town centres.
As part of an evidence session conducted by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, the former high streets Minister told the Committee that town centre first planning rules were a matter for local authorities to deal with as part of their local plans, despite fewer than one in seven actually having plans in place that comply with the NPPF.
ACS has called on Ministers to provide reassurance about tackling the illegal tobacco trade in face of proposals to introduce a new minimum excise tax for tobacco.
The proposal would seek to ensure that the cheapest tobacco on sale in the retail sector yields a higher tax take per pack. This so called ‘minimum excise tax’ is in place in most EU states and is being proposed following an unexpected decline in tobacco tax revenue in 2013/14.
ACS’ Responsible Retailing Forum will be taking place on 15thOctober 2014 from 9.30am – 15.30pm.
The Forum, taking place at Wesley Hotel, London, will tackle a variety of responsible retailing issues affecting the local shop worker on a daily basis.
These include developments in alcohol licensing, such as getting and maintaining alcohol licenses in cumulative impact zones, regulating in-store marketing and promotions, and changes to licensing regulations (such as personal licence reform).
