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Small Business Strategy Inquiry 2025 - ACT and Bira call for members to share their voice

20 Jun 2025

The House of Commons Business and Trade Committee has asked the ACT, and its parent company Bira, to help them reach out to small business retailers across the country, for their quick input on... Read more…

Beyond the discount: Restoring integrity to the cycle supply chain

18 Jun 2025

The Association of Cycle Traders believes the time has come for greater accountability throughout our supply chain, writes ACT Director Jonathan Harrison in an article published for BikeBiz.
Read more…

Bira welcomes Wales' business rates proposals but calls for key improvements

11 Jun 2025

Bira has welcomed the Welsh Government's consultation on business rate reforms for retail shops, whilst calling for significant improvements to ensure the proposals truly support high street... Read more…

New awards launch to champion Britain's independent high street heroes

9 Jun 2025

Retailers on Britain's high streets are being encouraged to put themselves forward for the first-ever Love Your High Street Awards, designed to celebrate the small businesses that bring... Read more…

"Tectonic shift" in employment law threatens independent retailer viability, warns Bira podcast

6 Jun 2025

Independent retailers are facing a "generational" transformation of employment law that could fundamentally change how small businesses operate, according to the final episode of Bira's first... Read more…

Retailers hope warm weather and bank holidays will boost high street sales

16 May 2025

ACT parent company Bira has said that members are hopeful the warm weather, Easter weekend and upcoming bank holidays will provide a much-needed boost to high street sales.
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Economic growth surges to 0.7%, but "April reality check" looms for high street retailers

15 May 2025

UK economy delivers strongest quarterly performance in a year despite forecasts of business downturn.
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Communities come together for Local Bike Shop Day 2025 celebrations

13 May 2025

Local Bike Shop Day 2025 brought a wave of... Read more…

ACT parent company Bira welcomes Bank of England's latest interest rate cut

8 May 2025

ACT parent company Bira has welcomed the Bank of England's decision to reduce interest rates from 4.5% to 4.25%, calling it a "much-needed boost" for the retail sector, including for cycling... Read more…

ACT parent company Bira responds to Beales' "Rachel Reeves Closing Down Sale" as iconic store makes final protest

8 May 2025

ACT parent company Bira has responded to the news that the 144-year-old Beales department store is staging a "Rachel Reeves Closing Down Sale" in its final weeks of trading, with giant yellow... Read more…

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Competition and Markets Authority says grocers need to prioritise accurate pricing.

Posted on in Business News

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has called on grocers to prioritise accurate pricing following a review of the way in-store prices are displayed.

Fuit and veg

The review, which looked at the price marking practices of 139 grocery stores, assessed whether prices were “clear, accurate and matched the price people were charged at the till”, and the assessment included supermarket chains, symbol convenience stores, variety stores and independent food stores.

The CMA conducted on-site inspections and looked at a sample of products, and in some inspections, found examples where a retailer was “displaying inaccurate prices or failed to display prices at all for certain products”, a breach of consumer law.

According to the authority, these findings were backed up by similar work carried out by some regional and local Trading Standards (TS) across England and Wales, as well as previous work by the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) and Northern Ireland Trading Standards (TSNI).

Most issues were found at independent food stores and symbol convenience stores, and the most common types of issues seen were missing prices, conflicting prices (where prices indicated on products conflicted with those shown on shelf edge labels) and prices not being displayed “sufficiently close to products”.

There were also issues with prices not being clearly legible, the selling price being obscured, and multibuy promotion labels that didn’t specify the price of the items individually.

The percentage of pricing errors found at each type of store were:

  • Supermarkets: 2%
  • Symbol convenience stores: 14.4%
  • Variety stores: 5.6%
  • Independent food stores: 7.8%

As a result of these findings, the CMA has published new compliance materials aimed at helping grocery retailers “understand what they need to do to comply with the law”.

George Lusty, interim executive director for Consumer Protection and Markets at the CMA, said: “We know how frustrating it can be when you get to the till only to find the price doesn’t match what was advertised. While lots of grocery retailers – particularly supermarkets – are complying with pricing rules, this needs to consistently be the case across all types of stores.

“It’s important that shoppers can make well-informed choices based on accurate information, especially at a time when lots of people are looking to save money. That’s why we are reminding businesses of the importance of complying with consumer law.”

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