Buying a newsagent (any owners)
Discussion
Surely his experience qualifies him for interim/part time HR work if he wants to avoid the corporate crush? At his experience level I'd expect c£350 per day would be easily achievable even in this climate and if he's not fussy on maxing his earnings he can pick and choose his projects.
Tell him to check out People Puzzles as an idea on structure. I don't know if they're any good but I met a chap who worked for them who liked it and it opened my eyes to the idea that SMEs will pay to have a solid HRD on the books a day or two a week.
Starting again from scratch is expensive and challenging, much better to pivot within your area of expertise.
Tell him to check out People Puzzles as an idea on structure. I don't know if they're any good but I met a chap who worked for them who liked it and it opened my eyes to the idea that SMEs will pay to have a solid HRD on the books a day or two a week.
Starting again from scratch is expensive and challenging, much better to pivot within your area of expertise.
Also worth bearing in mind re any off licence, a large proportion of the people who want to buy alcoholic drinks from you are to young to legally do so. So they get older friends to buy on their behalf, and when the police catch them drinking and ask them where they got it, they'll say you sold it to them.
I speak from experience having grew up living on top of a grocer (late 80's), then CTN during 90's and now the modern convenience store. My wider family are or have been involved in convenience stores for 30+ years. It was the go-to business for migrant Indians in the 80's.
There is money to be made in good stores, but they need to be well-run modern convenience stores catering to a number of different customers, be it weekly shoppers, top-up shopper or food-to-go. I won't touch on CTN, grocers or post offices as in the majority, they don't have a long-term future, as cigarette bans come in, printed paper dies and post offices being incorporated into C-stores with the new formats. A lot of newsagents would have a been run by a husband and wife team, which is why you see these small stores and wonder how they survive. But these will all but disappear and will be left only the well-run convenience stores. They would have bought these years ago with the mortgage typically paid off with little overheads, which is why they can survive taking £6-8k a week.
If you want to make good money from a c-store where you are not stuck working 12-hour days, it needs to be doing £13-15k a week minimum turnover. At this level you can afford to have part-time staff cover evening or days, so you are not working the 12-hour days. Our store is only manned by my brother or dad between 7.30am (opening) to 3pm, then its staff run. Its located in council estate and has done constant trade and will continue to do so for another 10-15 years atleast. Our biggest risks are minimum wage increases and replacing trust-worthy staff. Product stock rises are passed onto the customer and we don't face any competition from a multiple (co-op, tesco express, Aldi). Gross profit margin is between 20-25% on turnover. Again we own the freehold outright so no significant outgoings. We operate under Premier symbols group (owned by bookers cash & carry) which we get deliveries once or twice a week and top-up at the local cash & carry as needed through the week. This affords us access to good margin stock, offers and rebates on stock purchases. There are other symbol groups such as NISA and Londis, which again you run completely independent, how you see fit. You can tie into a franchise such as One-Stop (Tesco) or Spar, but will have less control.
I would say advise looking at a stores doing (or potential) to do at least £20-25k a week. But it will be expensive (£250-300k for lease, goodwill + stock) or freehold around £5-700k (but depends on location and any other property value). If you doing £30k+ a week, you'll be laughing with a fully staff-run operation and can expand to buy more stores if you wanted. Competition is very tough for these stores.
During the lockdown our turnover was up 50%. During recessions we didn't get drop in takings, but increased. This is down to our local customer demographics. Each store has different consumer demographics and need to cater to those. If you are on a modern new-build house estate, you need to be offering quality fresh produce, on a busy footfall area with local warehouses etc, you need to have a quality food-to-go range etc.
I will say, don't get into newsagents, only look at convenience stores which are doing good turnover with scope to increase and not opposite a Co-op (but not a deal break). Have your friend look at this website and speak to owners before. There are a number of other small challenges, but too many to go into detail.
https://www.conveniencestore.co.uk/stores/retailer...
https://www.betterretailing.com/store-profiles/
There is money to be made in good stores, but they need to be well-run modern convenience stores catering to a number of different customers, be it weekly shoppers, top-up shopper or food-to-go. I won't touch on CTN, grocers or post offices as in the majority, they don't have a long-term future, as cigarette bans come in, printed paper dies and post offices being incorporated into C-stores with the new formats. A lot of newsagents would have a been run by a husband and wife team, which is why you see these small stores and wonder how they survive. But these will all but disappear and will be left only the well-run convenience stores. They would have bought these years ago with the mortgage typically paid off with little overheads, which is why they can survive taking £6-8k a week.
If you want to make good money from a c-store where you are not stuck working 12-hour days, it needs to be doing £13-15k a week minimum turnover. At this level you can afford to have part-time staff cover evening or days, so you are not working the 12-hour days. Our store is only manned by my brother or dad between 7.30am (opening) to 3pm, then its staff run. Its located in council estate and has done constant trade and will continue to do so for another 10-15 years atleast. Our biggest risks are minimum wage increases and replacing trust-worthy staff. Product stock rises are passed onto the customer and we don't face any competition from a multiple (co-op, tesco express, Aldi). Gross profit margin is between 20-25% on turnover. Again we own the freehold outright so no significant outgoings. We operate under Premier symbols group (owned by bookers cash & carry) which we get deliveries once or twice a week and top-up at the local cash & carry as needed through the week. This affords us access to good margin stock, offers and rebates on stock purchases. There are other symbol groups such as NISA and Londis, which again you run completely independent, how you see fit. You can tie into a franchise such as One-Stop (Tesco) or Spar, but will have less control.
I would say advise looking at a stores doing (or potential) to do at least £20-25k a week. But it will be expensive (£250-300k for lease, goodwill + stock) or freehold around £5-700k (but depends on location and any other property value). If you doing £30k+ a week, you'll be laughing with a fully staff-run operation and can expand to buy more stores if you wanted. Competition is very tough for these stores.
During the lockdown our turnover was up 50%. During recessions we didn't get drop in takings, but increased. This is down to our local customer demographics. Each store has different consumer demographics and need to cater to those. If you are on a modern new-build house estate, you need to be offering quality fresh produce, on a busy footfall area with local warehouses etc, you need to have a quality food-to-go range etc.
I will say, don't get into newsagents, only look at convenience stores which are doing good turnover with scope to increase and not opposite a Co-op (but not a deal break). Have your friend look at this website and speak to owners before. There are a number of other small challenges, but too many to go into detail.
https://www.conveniencestore.co.uk/stores/retailer...
https://www.betterretailing.com/store-profiles/
Freshprince said:
Brillant insight - thanks.You know all the corporate nonsense red tape and bulls
t your friend thinks he is gettin away from? That is now in the local shops and retailers thanks to similar level execs and high managers thinking of the next complex rule or regulation to follow or bring in. Ten years ago i chucked My waste into 1 massive bin. Now you have to split it up into meat eggs recyclable non recyclable animal feed etc. It takes longer to do this than actually fill the shelves.
t your friend thinks he is gettin away from? That is now in the local shops and retailers thanks to similar level execs and high managers thinking of the next complex rule or regulation to follow or bring in. Ten years ago i chucked My waste into 1 massive bin. Now you have to split it up into meat eggs recyclable non recyclable animal feed etc. It takes longer to do this than actually fill the shelves.Contacted the agent three times (two calls, left messages and email), asking for additional information - no reply.
Either the seller has got cold feet or the agent is a bit pants.
My friend has upped his budget to £250k, (higher if it can be funded with some debt), looking for a well-establihsed business that can be run by someone with management and commercial skills (e.g no technical/ engineering background) - location agonist.
Any alternate places to look beyond Daltons ??
Either the seller has got cold feet or the agent is a bit pants.
My friend has upped his budget to £250k, (higher if it can be funded with some debt), looking for a well-establihsed business that can be run by someone with management and commercial skills (e.g no technical/ engineering background) - location agonist.
Any alternate places to look beyond Daltons ??
Wilmslowboy said:
Contacted the agent three times (two calls, left messages and email), asking for additional information - no reply.
Either the seller has got cold feet or the agent is a bit pants.
My friend has upped his budget to £250k, (higher if it can be funded with some debt), looking for a well-establihsed business that can be run by someone with management and commercial skills (e.g no technical/ engineering background) - location agonist.
Any alternate places to look beyond Daltons ??
Christie & Co usually have a range of stores from the owner run freehold type up to large format, leasehold stores run by staff.Either the seller has got cold feet or the agent is a bit pants.
My friend has upped his budget to £250k, (higher if it can be funded with some debt), looking for a well-establihsed business that can be run by someone with management and commercial skills (e.g no technical/ engineering background) - location agonist.
Any alternate places to look beyond Daltons ??
Algarve said:
That's a strange article even for 2009 given how central police scrutiny and approval are to the granting (and triannual renewal) of taxi operating licences by the local council's licensing office.Don't believe everything you read in newspapers.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/b...
https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/ov...
plenty more examples where they came from!
https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/ov...
plenty more examples where they came from!
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