8 shopping centres in Birmingham are turning to Mary ‘Queen of Shops’ Portas to help them to solve their problems. Praetorian Outsource Marketing looks at the bids and asks, will it work?
The government recently enlisted the help of TV show host Mary Portas to help rescue the struggling high street. Praetorian Outsource Marketing, a outsource sales and marketing company based in Birmingham city centre, is well aware of the problems facing small businesses and were interested to see what she would do. Portas has put together a pilot scheme, to which 8 bids from Birmingham have been submitted, to see if they can revive independent shops that have been struggling in the financial downturn.
Praetorian Outsource Marketing has seen shop after shop close in Birmingham, aside from in the city’s flagship Bullring which seems to be weathering the storm. Independent retailers have seen rents have go up and sales go down. A total of 12 high streets from around the UK will be selected to get grants of up to £100,000 each. The competition was launched in February after Portas submitted a report on struggling high streets which suggested 28 improvements to try and revive the shopping areas.
The managing director of Praetorian Outsource Marketing is delighted that something is being done to help small businesses around the UK by the government. He said, “Huge shops like ASDA and Tesco have been forcing out smaller businesses for years but when the recession hit these shops struggled even more as they just weren’t able to compete on price when there were less people buying. I’m thrilled to see that 8 impressive looking bids have been submitted in Birmingham.”
The bids include rock ‘n’ roll themed branding for Erdington, a loyalty card scheme for Kings Heath and start up shops for new retailers in Boldmere. Does Praetorian Outsource Marketing think that Mary Portas’s scheme will work? “Well we feel it’s had a positive effect already, it has brought the problem to the forefront of the governments attention and they are finally doing something about it. If it encourages people to support their local shops and also revive some dreary looking high streets then we’re sure that it will be effective.”
Council member of Bourneville, Timothy Huxtable, said “the bids are all designed to improve the vibrancy of these local centres. I have been very impressed with the range and quality.”
Praetorian Outsource Marketing are keen to see which bids win and is hopeful that some of the Birmingham bids will be among them.
