Last month, whilst on a tour boat on the River Avon in Stratford Upon Avon (Yes, the home of the Bard, William Shakespeare), Mrs Irish mentioned that we needed to start this year’s Christmas planning and list. We had started the shopping in Stratford earlier in the day and she wanted to ensure there was no repeat of last year where some Christmas presents were discovered hidden in a cupboard in July!
This conversation reminded me of a similar one I had in July 2009, my first year in the “Cash in Transit” industry. I was approached by the Operations team requesting my customer’s Christmas planning requirements. Now, I was aware that Christmas planning starts even earlier in the year for many Retailers and Manufacturers, but as a rookie in the cash industry, I hadn’t quite considered the impact Christmas had on cash and the cash logistics sector. Of course, we all know that Christmas is busy in retail as we empty our bank accounts and kids empty their piggy banks to buy presents. In fact, about 40% of retail takings happen during the 8 weeks from mid-November to mid-January, leading to the Christmas Cash Challenge. I’d like to add, this is very different to my Christmas Cash Challenge which is of course how to pay for it.
This significant uplift in sales had a corresponding impact on the demand for coin deliveries, cash collections and processing services, leading to pressure on routes, vans, staff, insurance limits and many more elements. The situation was exacerbated further if Christmas Eve fell on a Monday, the busiest day of a normal week, leading to a significant excess demand for cash services that could not be satisfied.
Over the years as I became immersed in the industry, the start of Christmas planning should have been greeted with pleasure as it also represented a peak in industry revenue. It was however, often greeted with an audible groan, similar to that which escaped my lips as we floated down the Avon last Sunday. It was hard work and the weeks before Christmas pushed everyone in the industry to the limit, as staffing for that short-term peak was impossible in an industry with strict recruitment and vetting requirements. It was “all hands on deck” and no holidays!
Fast forward to 2021 and the first real post pandemic Christmas, where we should see mobility return to near normal across Europe. Combine that with a continuing upward trend in cash usage, which is happening despite the unwarranted attacks on cash from its competitors during the crisis, and which have been scientifically refuted, and we are once again facing the same position as we did prior to the pandemic. My Christmas planning this year will include several trips to the “High Street”, as I hope will yours, so that the industry can once again face up to the stresses and strains of The Christmas Cash Challenge. I am certain it’s a challenge that the industry will be facing with renewed vigour and enthusiasm this year.
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