The Fed meets Cardiff Central MS to highlight challenges facing independent retailers

The Fed met with the Member of the Senedd for Cardiff Central, Jenny Rathbone, on Friday, January 23, at Albany Road Post Office to highlight the key services Fed members provide and the challenges they face.

Mark Dudden, the store’s owner, hosted the visit, along with prominent Fed member Vince Malone, who is a retailer based in Tenby in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, and the Fed’s political engagement coordinator Doug Oliver.

Mr Dudden said: “Jenny and I have known each other for many years and we have worked together in the past on issues facing the Fed’s members – but I would like to thank her visiting the business once again. This is an important time for the Fed and we discussed the challenges for small shops caused by retail crime and higher costs as well as the Fed’s manifesto that was recently published ahead of the Welsh Senedd election on May 7^th this year. I explained that though the shop and post office employs about 20 members of staff, higher costs including higher taxes and the impact of costs for security to deal with retail crime, are making it harder to employ more staff and with more hours.

“We discussed the important services provided by the post office, particularly access to cash as well as the myriad of other services it offers and also how that drives footfall for the business. We also spoke about the planned Deposit Return Scheme for Recycling (DRS) and how this could also boost footfall for independent business, so long as the scheme is cost neutral for shops.”

To find out more about the Fed’s Political Engagement work in Wales, please get in touch with our Political Engagement Coordinator on: douglas.oliver@nfrn.org.uk