National Federation of Retail Newsagents

History

The roots of the NFRN can be traced back to late 19th Century when local groups across the north of England, formed to bring together retailers in locations such as Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley. The Retail Newsagents and Booksellers Union was formed in 1891 at the Congregational Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street - a short walk away from the Federation's current offices, Yeoman House. The Union had branches in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brighton and Reading but broke up amid infighting in 1901. Whilst one Union was faltering, another, the Northern Counties Union, was formed in Manchester. The NCU is the first organization who can claim unbroken descendants to today. A third union - the National Union, was founded in 1902 but was dissolved in 1915.

The NCU was strengthened in 1911 when a conference in Leeds agreed its merger with the United Kingdom Federation, which had been formed in White City, London, in 1908. Other local federations from across the north of the country joined the newly enlarged organization.

While the movement towards one national organization may have been welcomed by many, progress was not to be smooth as two years later, another organization, the London and Provincial Newsagents, was formed. More London and southern based than the NCU, the LPN nether the less built a significant membership.

With the formation of the Scottish Federation in 1915, the three organizations were to merge in the early interwar years to work to represent their members. It was in the aftermath of the First World War that alexander Maclaren, a member of a Glasgow newsagents family contacted representatives of the various organizations with the view to forming a national organization, an objective he had worked towards while recovering from serious injuries he sustained during the war.

The result was the National Unity Conference held in Birmingham in 1918. This conference agreed the formation of the National Joint Board of Retailers whose role was to lay the ground work for a new organization. Alongside Maclaren, who acted as Secretary, was F A Ratcliffe, of the LPC, who took the role of Chairman.

On the 9 and 10 July 1919, at a conference in Leicester, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, Booksellers and Stationers was formed.

Structure

National Council is the body that runs the NFRN between Annual Conferences. It meets four times a year to debate key issues and to decide national policy. National Council comprises representatives from all 15 NFRN Districts. These National Councillors are elected by members of the district councils during the AGM's.

The National Executive Committee meets every month to implement the decisions from National Council and from Annual Conference. It comprises three elected national officers - National President, National VIce President, National Deputy Vice President - the Immediate Past President and six National Council members who are voted onto the committee during Annual Conference. The National President chairs the NEC, National Council meetings and Annual Conference. They act as an ambassador for the NFRN - officially visiting all NFRN Districts across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, attending key industry events on behalf of and to represent members, as well as meeting with senior executives from the newspaper and magazine industry.

The current National President is Ray Monelle, who has been an independent retailer for more than 33 years.

Key People

Paul Baxter is the Chief Executive of the NFRN, after being appointed in 2011.

Campaigns

In recent years, the NFRN has stepped up its campaign to reduce retail crime following a sharp rise in recorded incidents of shop theft, violence and abuse in store, criminal damage, and armed robberies.

The NFRN is the secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Retail Crime, chaired by Martin Vickers MP, who replaced Guto Bebb in 2016. The purpose of the retail crime group is to raise awareness of retail crime and the impact it has on retailers and shop workers.

In May 2016, following the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections, NFRN Public Affairs began to meet with newly elected Commissioners from across England and Wales to encourage them to create a business crime strategy which aims at reducing retail crime and increasing response times to retail crime incidents. In August 2016, following a series of Freedom of Information requests, Retail Newsagent Magazine reported that the NFRN investigation revealed a 'postcode lottery' in police response times.