FOR more than 25 years now, our retail partners – particularly independent stores – have been vital to the success of The National Lottery, helping us raise tens of billions of pounds for UK good causes projects.
And Northern Ireland alone has benefitted from over £1.2bn in National Lottery funding since 1994 – funding which has been invested into more than 25,000 projects.
Often pillars of their communities, independent stores serve the interests of local areas in numerous ways and often know their customers better and on a more personal level. Having this connection with the local community is something that can’t be overlooked when assessing the value these stores bring to the National Lottery, providing the ideal place for customers to pick up a lottery ticket or two alongside their groceries.
More recently, the fundamental importance of these stores has been made abruptly clear due to the Covid-19 crisis. Many of them have been instrumental in helping local communities get through the pandemic, ensuring people have been able to access essential products. They’ve also continued selling National Lottery tickets during this period, which has further supported Covid-19-related good causes – something that I will come back to later.
It is clear from their response, and their ability to continue to provide for local communities in such trying circumstances, that our independent retailers are there for their customers (and National Lottery players) day in, day out – irrespective of external conditions.
But it has not been easy. They have had to navigate numerous challenges as the crisis has unfolded – and all retailers, but particularly independents and convenience stores, have worked tirelessly to come up with new ways to face these head on and to continue to serve their local communities.
At Camelot, we always do our best to support our retail partners in every way that we can, especially our independent retailers – who we know have had a difficult time over the past few years. Although we took our retail reps off the road during lockdown, our team has continued to work closely with retailers throughout the period to maximise safety – including encouraging players to only buy tickets in retail if they were already in-store doing an essential shop and providing guidance on the safest ways to claim prizes while minimising contact.
More recently, following the easing of lockdown restrictions, I’m pleased to say that our retail sales team safely returned to the field to support these businesses in serving their local communities. We know that some may still be facing a number of challenges – including potentially having to limit the number of people in-store at any given time to ensure social distancing – and so are working to understand individual needs.
Camelot also continues to invest in areas that almost exclusively benefit our independent retail partners, with an increased focus on digital solutions to support retailers through this difficult period. For example, we’ve updated our dedicated National Lottery retailer website and have taken our retailer rewards programme online.
Finally, we’d like to specifically thank all of our retailers for their unwavering support over the last few months, as they’ve continued to sell National Lottery tickets alongside essential products.
Good cause funding has never been more crucial than it is now, as the National Lottery helps the UK respond to, and recover from, the Covid-19 crisis. In total, up to £600 million in National Lottery funding is being directed towards charities and organisations across Northern Ireland and the UK to help tackle the impact of the pandemic – including meal delivery services for the elderly, food banks, and projects that help overcome loneliness and isolation.
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish the best of luck to all Northern Irish independent retailers in the Independents’ Day 2020 campaign – keep up the amazing work!
:: Jenny Blogg is head of retail operations at Camelot
:: The public have until Friday at noon to show their support for their high street and vote for their favourite independent retailers on irishnews.com/local. Winners will be revealed in Business Insight next Tuesday.
