Retail Trust | The only charity that looks after the needs of three million people working in retail.

Retail Trust London Ball raises over £1million to help staff in need

The Retail Trust London Ball 2012 on Monday night (30th January) raised over £1million to help retail staff in need.

The retail industry’s leadership managed to put aside recessionary worries and dig deep to help support all those working in retail in need of assistance, raising over £1million for Retail Trust.

The guest list included high street and online retail leading lights such as Arcadia Group owner Sir Philip Green, M&S CEO Marc Bolland, ASOS CEO Nick Robertson, Jaeger Chairman Harold Tillman, Debenhams CEO Michael Sharp, House of Fraser CEO John King and Joseph Wan, Chief Executive of Harvey Nichols.

The sum raised at the retail industry’s annual fundraiser, held at Grosvenor House, came from a blend of personal pledges including an incredibly generous £190,000 from Sir Philip Green and corporate contributions from some of the country’s best known retailers, including £100,000 from Arcadia Group.

A delighted Retail Trust CEO, Nigel J L Rothband, said “Tough times are well documented for retail, but I am delighted that our annual fundraising Ball still brought the biggest names in the sector together to support their industry charity. We are grateful to all the retailers and supporters for their contributions that will benefit those in retail who are most affected by change, pressures of life and a need to turn somewhere for advice.

“We have seen contacts to our Helpline rise significantly in the last six months, not only on matters of redundancy and job security, but on a host of associated issues that come to the fore when recession is in play. Finance and relationship issues, instances of workplace bullying, and as the riots highlighted, threats of violence against those who man the shops we rely on day in day out.

“I would like to thank especially the Khurmy family from Ealing who joined us on stage this year to share their experiences as riot affected retailers, and to highlight how Retail Trust is there to help those in need of help in many different ways.”

Retail Trust can be contacted via the helpline number 0808 801 0808, by texting HELPLINE to 88010, or by accessing the newly launched ‘Helpline Online’ section of the website (www.retailtrust.org.uk/help) for answers to most often searched help topics and responses.

To see an extensive gallery of photos from the night, please click here.

You can see some of the biggest names in retail pledging their support to Retail Trust below: