An update from Local Data Company’s Managing Director

As we work through the fourth week of lockdown, we have settled into a new routine at the Local Data Company. I’m pleased to say we have been agile and moved to remote working early, causing little disruption so we can continue to support our clients who need our data and insights more than ever.

One big change to our business is the fact we have had to pause our field research work. This decision was made as soon as lockdown measures were announced to protect our field research team and to do the right thing regarding limiting movement and slowing the spread of the virus.

We are acutely aware of how important our data is and even more so at the end of this crisis, so I wanted to outline the steps we have taken to protect the accuracy and recency of our data during and after this period of lockdown.

Extra resource for post-lockdown data collection

1. We have already put a plan together to ensure that, as soon as it is safe to do so, our field research team can get back out into the field to collect data on the impact of the virus on the UK retail landscape. We are putting additional resources in place now, so that when the lockdown is lifted, we can send a team out into the field to update our records as quickly as possible.

Boosting desk research

2. In the meantime, we have significantly dialled up our desk-based research so that the team can collect data on market activity from the safety of their homes. The team will continue to update our records based on careful monitoring of announcements made by various retailers.

COVID market analysis

3. We have completed analysis on the percentages of essential and non-essential retailers in our database, so we already have insight on how many retailers have closed temporarily. We are already informing our clients on which categories, assets and locations may be more and less resilient to the intense challenges caused by the pandemic.

We continue to be committed to tracking and informing the market as we move through these incredibly uncertain times. If you haven’t signed up to one of our webinars on the 29^th April, please do as we’ll be using this platform to share data on 2019, which will act as a base from which to understand the impact of the COVID crisis, alongside data on what we know so far.

Please click the image below for more information and registration details for our webinars.

Stay safe,

Barnaby