Retail Assist Helps to Re-Open Nottingham’s Economy

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 11 August 2020

UPDATED: 11 August 2020

Retail Assist’s latest partnership supports local businesses to re-open safely to help Nottingham’s economy

They’re usually providing award-winning IT support to national and international retail and hospitality customers, but Retail Assist’s latest client had quite a different challenge.
Retail Assist were contracted by Nottingham City Council to reach out to local independent businesses on Nottingham’s high streets as they started to re-open, with retail reopening on 15th June and then hospitality on 4th July. 
Partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the UK government, vital messages about reopening needed to be shared quickly with as many businesses in Nottingham as possible. At the same time, the availability of additional support for businesses, such as government support grants available to businesses who had been negatively impacted by COVID-19, needed to be communicated to ensure businesses could survive the pandemic and have every opportunity to thrive after it. 
In just 3 weeks, Retail Assist put together a team on behalf of Nottingham City Council, to contact hundreds of qualifying businesses to advise them on safely re-opening and to ensure they were aware and able to access vital additional support. Using their experience within retail to underpin these conversations, Retail Assist supported businesses within the city of Nottingham, providing advice and directing them to key grants that could help them to re-open their doors.
Robert Dixon, Head of Business Growth for Nottingham City Council, said: “Supporting our city’s economy during this pandemic has been a key priority for Nottingham City Council, and it was the 

right decision to work with Retail Assist to be absolutely sure local businesses were able to access the right support as quickly as possible. We needed our independent businesses and small high street businesses – which are such a huge part of Nottingham’s character – to be able to re-open safely and get central government support to maintain their presence on our high streets. 
“If an extra 200 businesses accessed support, including grants, and that helped them to re-open safely, that’s a massive boost for our local economy. With more and more businesses re-opening in our city centre, it also provides reassurance to local people that they can come back into Nottingham safely.”
Dan Smith, Retail Assist’s Chief Executive Officer, added: “Every small business that re-opens is another influence on footfall within the local economy, and another step forward in getting ‘back to normal’. We are extremely proud to have our head office in Nottingham and this work had a feel-good element as we were able to support the city. We are all delighted with the success of this project and the positive impact it will bring to Nottingham.”
 

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