News

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed measures announced in today’s Budget to encourage more people into working in careers like convenience by reducing the rate of National Insurance and increasing child benefit thresholds.

ACS has marked a decade of support provided to members through its industry leading Assured Advice scheme, built in partnership with Surrey and Buckinghamshire Trading Standards.

Assured Advice provides one set of standards that stores can rely on when dealing with enforcement officers, whatever local authority they come from in England and Wales.

The UK’s local shops recorded a shocking 5.6million incidents of shop theft over the last year, smashing the previous record of 1.1m incidents recorded in the 2023 Crime Report.

The Association of Convenience Stores’ 2024 Crime Report, released today, outlines the scale of the retail crime crisis blighting communities across the UK. The report reveals that retailers have recorded over 600 incidents of theft an hour over the last year.

With Budget due to be launched next Wednesday 6th March, ACS (The Association of Convenience Stores) are hoping to see Chancellor Jeremy Hunt provide support for retail and convenience stores by addressing rising costs in business rates, employment, and the cost of providing access to cash. In its submission ahead of Budget, ACS highlighted the importance of providing support to thousands of stores and extending retail, hospitality, and leisure reliefs to protect them from cost uncertainty from business rates in the medium term.

There’s only two months left till Conference24, our biggest event of the year. Taking place on the 30th April at The Vox, Birmingham, this event will host a variety of panels and discussions where you can understand and navigate the changing fluctuations of consumer behaviour, build relationships, and network with leading experts and leaders in the convenience sector. You will also get the chance to hear from four leading independent retailers as they share their experience over the past year and how they’ve adapted over the past year to meet customer expectations.

There’s just one week to go until the 2024 Safe + Responsible Retailing Conference, taking place at the Eastside Rooms, Central Birmingham on Tuesday 5th March.

Featuring the launch of the ACS 2024 Crime Report, this event will highlight the extent of crime and abuse in the convenience sector while bringing together experts in crime prevention, responsible retailing, and product regulation to better equip you with the necessary tools to navigate through these issues.

The Scottish Government has published its plans to restrict the sale of HFSS products through additional rules on price promotions and the location of HFSS products in stores, with the intention of putting in place more restrictions than those already in place in England.

While the proposals, scheduled for implementation 12 months after regulations are laid in the Scottish Parliament, broadly follow those that have been introduced in England, additional restrictions being proposed include:

It's frustrating that policy-makers still seem to think that banning something will mean it ceases to exist. The Scottish Government has published the statutory instrument it will use to ban disposable vapes and by the time you read this Westminster may well have followed suit, with both jurisdictions deliberately using the parliamentary mechanism that will attract the least debate and attention. 

ACS has written to the Scottish Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity Lorna Slater MSP, raising concerns about the impact that a ban on disposable vapes would have on responsible retailers. 

The Scottish Government set out its plans to go ahead with a ban on disposable vapes last week with the publication of draft regulations and a two week consultation period. The ban is scheduled to come into force in April 2025. 

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has called on the Scottish Government to consider the impact of its proposed disposable vaping ban on the illicit market. 

The Scottish Government has today published regulations and a short two week consultation on plans to ban disposable vapes by April 2025.