Last week the National Retail Association bid farewell to our office in Woolloongabba for a new headquarters situated in the bustling Inner-Brisbane suburb of Milton.
While our old office had served the NRA well, in order for us to continue providing the very best service to our members, we felt the need to move to a more appropriately sized office.
The Milton office will provide a more suitable working space for our staff, with the entire NRA team to now be situated on the one floor and with access to improved amenities. The new workspace will also better accommodate our growing legal team, which has grown in recent times in order to provide members with timely and accurate legal advice.
Importantly, the new NRA headquarters will have us situated smack-bang in the middle of a vibrant retail precinct.
Park Road in Milton is littered with restaurants, cafes and a variety of other retail outlets and is located close to the heart of the Brisbane CBD. It is only appropriate that an industry association with such a long and proud history of representing the retail sector, such as the NRA, be based in an area crowded with the very businesses we seek to advocate for on a daily basis.
We look forward to our new headquarters enabling us to service our members right around Australia to the same extent that we have for the past one hundred years.
Tickets sales have also now opened for our 2017 National Retail Awards. The evening gala is Australia’s premier award event for recognising outstanding individuals and businesses in the retail sector.
This year’s awards promise to be a wonderful evening with almost double the number of awards and a stunning location overlooking the Sydney Harbour bridge at Doltone House.
In other news, the Australian dollar last week broke the 80 US cents mark in what should be seen as an overall positive for retailers.
A stronger dollar will enable retailers to import material at a cheaper rate, in turn keeping costs down for consumers. This in turn reduces the inflationary pressures on the cost of goods and services provided by retailers and allows the Reserve Bank of Australia to keep interest rates low.
If the RBA continues to maintain Australia’s currently low interest rates it will mean that Australian’s have more disposable income to spend in the retail sector as we continue our march towards the busy Christmas period.
Have a great week.
Dominique Lamb, CEO.