The Next Traders meeting will take place @

The Spread Eagle
Monday 4th April
Commencing 6pm

Chairperson - Charlotte Sumbland
Deputy - Chair Daniel Connelly
Secretary - Hilary Hoyle

All Welcome 

A number of traders have commented with concern about the decreasing no of customers visiting the village since Christmas. We have unfortunately seen the demise of two of the most recent retail additions to the village, with first the Lemon Tree and now Fashionista pulling out.

After the implementation of pay and display, the advertising package Lymm Life provided for us was superb and helped pull people back, reminding them on a regular basis that we were all open for business. But the initial interest has now started to drop and to be quite frank it is all our own fault, I did try to encourage continuation of the campaign, but some of you seemed to think it wasn’t worthwhile, or felt you could not afford £30 per month, that’s £7.50 a week, only £1.25 per day to promote the Village.

I have no doubt the roadworks has created alot of the problems, and added to this the changing of the supermarket to a convenience store has done us no favours, but in the present economic climate we need to be pro active in pulling additional trade in to the village, all the surrounding shopping areas are, they are gaining the lost shoppers.

I propose if Gary is willing at Lymm Life, of  re-introducing the advertising campaign, however there are conditions, I need 17 people to agree to contribute and would suggest payment by monthly standing order direct to Lymm Life, I cannot continue being a collector of monies, which quite honestly was a pain, also I was particularly annoyed when Mark Harrison and I had to chip in an extra £100 each to make the final payment for the last campaign.

This is a suggestion to do something pro active and encourage people back into the village centre, however if 17 of you cannot contribute it won’t happen.

Please email to confirm support for the campaign and then I will go cap in hand to Gary to get his agreement.

It was a general feeling with the planning issues a personal crusade was being undertaken using Lymm as a trial model.

This certainly seems to be the case as these schemes are first being implemented in Lymm. 

The excuse it is a borough wide initiative doesn't really hold water as in reality this is just not happening.

I also find the threats of a £2,000 per day fine for continuing to display A boards distasteful and probably not enforceable anyway.

I drove through Grappenhall, Latchford, Stockton Heath and the outskirts of Warrington town centre last week and counted 60 A boards on display, the one pictured below laughingly in all its glory directly opposite the Town Hall!

Along with the issue of A boards and illegal signage livelihoods appear to be being compromised due to someone’s personal agenda or crusade. If an individual wants to crusade, do so towards the enforced architectural improvement of Barclays Bank and the Shopping centre buildings, these are the real eyesores of the village, how did these receive planning consent? .

If you haven’t already paid this month’s advertising contribution of a poultry £30 then send your cheques immediately to Mark Harrison, Harrisons Business Supplies and Post Office who is Lymm Traders Treasurer, and make them payable to Lymm Traders.

August edition of Lymm Life will be out soon and we will be collecting again, it is for the Village Traders benefit as a whole.

Philip

Lymm Life has come up with a bargain package to compliment our campaign to re-ignite Lymm village trade. Gary’s proposal is outlined below.

A brief synopsis, 

Lymm Life would produce a four page centre supplement, part funded by existing advertising and part funded by the Traders group to put out the message regarding the new car parking situation.

Page one would be based on the shopping made easier poster - but enhanced with full colour and additional design work.

Centre spread would be like May Queen centre spread but with a feature on the new car parking surrounded by individual traders adverts who have decided to support the feature.

Page four would be based on news/offers write ups e.t.c from those businesses who have contributed to the fighting fund. 100-150 word count and image if available.

These would have to be with us by the weekend to make our August edition. Lymm Life would print an additional 1,000 copies making a total print run of 6,000. 4,000 would be hand delivered to homes in the outlying areas of the village and all the "new builds" of recent years with 2,000 being distributed from our usual outlets, providing saturation coverage.

This could be done for just £500 plus VAT from the fighting fund. It may make sense to bill a VAT reg business so that element can be claimed back with the said business taking the £500 value from the fighting fund.

We could then consider replicating the feature in our Stockton Heath, Warrington, Culcheth editions over the coming months to provide wider coverage.

I would seek additional funding from our existing advertisers to help cover the additional expense and I would also make an approach to the Parish/borough councils to see if they could make a financial contribution to back the village.

The aim would be to keep the cost to the fighting fund down to £500 per magazine - providing excellent value - as a four page supplement would normally cost at least £1,000 in our village editions and £1,500 in the Warrington edition which has a much bigger print run.

I have agreed to go ahead with the above as it is a superb offer, the majority of the initial £500 would be for the door to door distribution alone. We would then continue the campaign over the following three month period appearing in the Stockton Heath, Warrington and Culcheth issues, obviously these would not be distributed door to door, but would target a much wider demographic.

This campaign would last until November issue giving an excellent opportunity to raise customer awareness before the crucial Christmas trading period. Now the painful bit, money! Because of the superb offer Lymm Life have come up with we initially will be looking for a contribution of £30 from each business to go into the 'pot', and then £30 for each of the following 2 months. For the last month we will see what is left in the fighting fund and then collect the balance required to cover the final issue.

The more businesses that contribute the less it will cost us all. We are only looking at £7.50 per week per business for 4 months. It is then up to each individual business to decide whether to run an additional advert to promote their specific outlet. 

I am really pleased the initial impact the Shoppers Car Park has had, but with this campaign we should see an increase in footfall resulting in an increase in traffic using the parking facility. If we could monitor Pepper Street, occasionally have a walk round and let me know if it reaches saturation point, I will be doing the same, then we can keep the Parish council informed. Hopefully the short stay will prevent the facility from becoming 'car bound'. 

Finally could you let Gary at Lymm Life have any interesting facts or unique selling points about your business that may be included within his editorial (not guaranteed as space will be at a premium) email him at garys@warrington-worldwide.co.uk before Sunday.

We will be calling round next week to collect the fighting fund. This has all been possible because Lymm Traders are working together. 

Regards

Philip

Hi All

We are starting to get some great publicity, word is slowly getting round about the parking situation and pay and display. Early indications suggest the Shoppers car park is working pretty well, a lot of positive customer comments.

At the moment it appears to be a little underused, this will change as shoppers get used to the fact they can come into the village and actually park!

Some of the publicity we are receiving ,

Movin Magazine feature on Lymm, including a section on Lymm Traders Read issue 3 online now featuring Lymm .

Warrington guardian story highlighting the introduction of pay and display Warrington Guardian.

Warrington worldwide story here Warrington Worldwide .

We must push on with this publicity, the group advertising we have discussed is essential, I am at present in discussion with three potential partners for the production of a professional maildrop. It is essential this is delivered door to door so we reach the NILNESH (new in lymm never ever shop here), we need to drag them in as well as inform the lost customers we are now a convenient shopping location. I have informed all advertising parties we will be organising this as a group under the Lymm Traders banner to ensure we get maximum discount for a larger spend. Could I request any available advertising funds are directed to this group initiative for the next couple of months to ensure we receive maximum exposure. I also hope to have a couple of free features running in various publications based on financial incentives.

Finally at the next Parish council meeting the area manager for Spar will be attending.

Regards

Philip

As we were promised Pay and Display went live this morning.

8.30a.m. Only one car parked on Pepper Street, he was just collecting a ticket, he thought it was wonderful as he has seldom been able to park there before, even at this time of the morning.

Henry Street, two thirds full.

Davies Way, 15% of spaces taken.

Can we all monitor the situation and let me have feedback to pass on to the Parish Council re the effect on trade, customer comments etc.

I am waiting for costings for the advertising push, will try to speed it up.

Not heard anything from Spar as yet. 

Just to prove it, the very first ticket from machine 2, an historic moment! 

Last Monday we had an emergency meeting to discuss the implementation of some marketing measures to ensure we fully take advantage of the opportunities the introduction of Pay and Display will hopefully present to us.

The attendance was superb, the input totally positive and the meeting was particularly fruitful with a pretty comprehensive strategy being decided. The direction of the advertising will be decided in the next few weeks as soon as we have had all the quotes in and have a ballpark figure for the contribution required from each business.

Minutes for the June meeting can be found here.

The next meeting will take place again in the upstairs room of the Spread Eagle (thanks to Pauline and Dave) on Wednesday 29th July 2009 prospective Agenda Here.

Spar supermarket woes have had a dramatic effect on footfall in the village centre, just as we seem to be tackling the parking problem another problem rears its head. The Parish Council are attempting to address the problem and I have also sent a letter outlining our concerns and offering customer feedback and inviting Spar to join the Lymm Traders group. Letter here.

My contacts do tell me though that Spar are aware of the problems, it is being dealt with at director level and if my information is correct there are moves afoot to change from Spar to EuroSpar which is their version of a supermarket, good news if correct, this is all from a very knowledgeable source.

Not sure how this will be greeted, but we shall see.

I feel very positive about the way things are going, my thanks to all.

Philip

ps Parish council minutes for June Here.

Hi All,

It is imperative that ALL retailers come along to the Spread Eagle, upstairs room at 6pm, next Monday 22nd June 2009 to thrash out a battle plan to win back the lost Lymm shoppers.

As you should all know by now Pay and Display will go ‘live’ Monday July 6th 2009 we must use this initiative to promote Lymm as a convenient, attractive, friendly and vibrant shopping experience.

We need to introduce promotions, advertising, involve the media and come up with an unforgettable tag line.

To enable this to happen we will all need to ‘chip’ in to create a fighting fund, we are not talking fortunes, but in the short term this should easily pay for itself as long as we get it right FIRST time, that’s why we ALL need to be part of the ‘think tank’.

This was emailed to me from Hilary, food for thought -

Now you come up with some ideas!

Put your ideas on the forum please click here

It has been difficult getting everybody to work together, now is the time for Lymm Traders to actually take the initiative and push all our businesses forward as one. Everybody will benefit so everybody should become involved.

See you all next Monday.

Regards

Philip

My Blogs are like buses, nothing for a month then two come along at once!

The final Pay and Display update (hopefully!)

[quote]

Dear all

Hopefully final update!

The pay & display machines are being installed on Thursday 2nd July along with all the associated signage. I have arranged to have the machines switched on Friday 3rd (they will be bagged over) with the intention of going live Monday 6th July 2009.

The signage around the village is on order and will be amended around the same time to guide people to Davies Way, Henry Street and to Pepper Street pay & display.

[/quote]

This should be a firm date, do we need a meeting to discuss the details of publicity, advertising and general drum beating, please respond by email or here.

Phil

As we all know the supermarket demise appears to be affecting footfall within the village, to try to effect some change we have attempted to contact the Spar area manager, as of yet we haven't had any response.

However I have just been informed that Peter Dodding, Retail Manager, James Hall Company will be going to the next Parish Council meeting to speak about the Spar Shop in Lymm. That should be interesting.

May Parish Council Minutes Here 

I will try to blog more when my little office refurb is completed! .

Philip