What newsagents and other independent retailers need have to make a case to a landlord

If you want to make a case to your landlord for rent relief – short or long term – here is a list of what you will need to assemble to enable you to make a case.

You cannot go to a landlord and ask cut my rent or seek short-term rent relief without evidence to back your claim. It’s a rookie move to ask for a rent related deal without evidence, without making a case.

Here is the evidence I suggest you assemble and fully understand before you prepare your case:

1. Current profit and loss (most recent year or to the end of the most recent quarter) and for the same period a year earlier.
2. Sales transaction count year to date compared to a year earlier.
3. Details of every step you have taken to improve traffic and sales including external marketing and costs associated with each activity.
4. Details of steps you have taken to manage costs.
5. Changes made to the business over the last year. Assume your landlord has not been to the shop and seen the work you have undertaken.
6. If possible, comparisons with other newsagencies – an understanding of how you compare, especially if it shows you as doing better than most in key parts of the business.

Once you have all of this information together look for a narrative, a story, which supports the proposal you want to make to the landlord.

If your P&L shows your profit is stable or improving, your case will be hard to make. If it is falling your case is easier. You should not manufacture figures to suit your case though. Look at the accurate data and listen to what it tells you.

If your P&L shows profit declining or you making a loss, consider what you actually want.

Too often retailers go to a landlord with a problem and not a solution. Work on your solution and use the information you have gathered to justify the solution to your landlord.

My experience is that the best people to pitch a landlord for assistance are the business owners. There are some horror stories in the newsagency channel about so-called leasing experts who have left newsagents worse off than ever.

Prepare your proposal, based on verifiable evidence and present it without emotion.