Why is it that one of our largest industries and greatest employers on the Central Coast has no body to represent it at a regional level? This is the question we at Business Insider have been pondering and have decided to research and do something about by sowing the seeds to create a Central Coast Retail Cluster.
Register your interest in being involved in the cluster, either as a member retailer or as a supporting partner (we already have the Central Coast NSW Business Chamber onboard as a committed supporting partner), by emailing your details to cc.retail@businessinsider.net.au
What we have found in our research
The only body currently representing retailers is the Australian Retailers Association (ARO), which has a NSW division. Executive Director, Russell Zimmerman told me yesterday that both Sydney and Melbourne have established local Retail Advisory Groups but to his knowledge no regional centre had done so. NSW Trade & Investment confirmed this to be true in the case of NSW.
?Problems for retailers are the same across the board,? said Zimmerman, citing the following as the top 3 issues raised by Australian retailers:
Employee relations & compliance
Tenancy costs
Education and training
He said the ARO runs regular training sessions on the Central Coast and in the Hunter.
Director of the Hunter Business Chamber and owner of Australia?s largest hobby retailer ? Frontline Hobbies in Newcastle ? Colin Scott, said there is no Retail body in the Hunter and retailers? needs are looked after by the ARO and the business chamber, which as a body representing business over a vast region is largely dominated by the mining sector.
Both Zimmerman and Scott agreed that such representation was inadequate to look at local needs such as tenancy, infrastructure and freight issues, all significant issues for retailers on the Central Coast.
Can retailers have faith in the current system?
Retailers are expected to have faith in systems, some which have been found to have glitches in the past. In January this year for instance, the Fair Work Ombudsman admitted publicly that glitches in its online pay calculator between July and December 2011 caused almost $600,000 of inadvertent underpayments to 750 retail workers nationally. For the small retailer, this type of error can spell disaster due to the need to make back payments.
The power of the industry cluster
There?s no doubt that different industries have different needs. The benefit in forming Industry clusters is that they have the power in their numbers to listen to members? industry specific needs, understand regional needs like no business chamber, national body or even State body ever could, and lobby collaboratively for changes to business-breaking legislation, tenancy costs, freight and infrastructure issues at a local level. We are seeing an increasing number of industry clusters forming on the Central Coast in the areas of manufacturing, innovation and social media. Why not a Central Coast Retail Cluster?
It?s time for a strategic approach geared at helping the CC retail sector
With the Central Coast NSW Business Chamber keen to partner us in the process of helping the Central Coast retail sector we are looking for interest and active participation to be involved in the Central Coast?s first Retail Forum (date and venue TBA). We are also seeking the support of more potential partners to help drive this vital process forward.
Register your interest by emailing your details and any questions or issues you would like raised at the first forum to cc.retail@businessinsider.net.au
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