Diversity and inclusion has been a hot topic in retail during 2025 – possibly for all the wrong reasons. For example, back in January shortly after the Trump Presidency begun, Target with its 2,000 stores ended its DE&I goals, and programmes focused on carrying more products from Black- or minority-owned businesses. Their like for like sales fell 5.7% over several months as consumers responded by choosing to shop elsewhere.
Against this global political backdrop on DE&I from the USA, our team at The MBS Group has spent the past few months speaking with UK retail Chairs, CEOs and CPOs to get a clearer picture of what DE&I looks like in their organisations within a British context. Although there is still support for DE&I, and a clear commitment from many to push on with the agenda, over the past few months many British retailers have become much quieter about their activities in this area. Rather than proudly advertising DE&I initiatives – and ensuring that all parties (customers, colleagues and shareholders) know DE&I is a priority for their organisation, many businesses have become subdued on DE&I – possibly attempting to keep their efforts somewhat under the radar. As one retail CEO, with over 1,000 stores, told me: “We’re still doing everything we used to do on DE&I – and ensuring diversity is still extremely important to me personally. But, we’re not going to put our head above the parapet here. I’m no longer taking a visible leadership role on the agenda – and we are downplaying some of our DE&I initiatives in documents like our annual report”.
Our latest report on the topic, produced in partnership with the British Retail Consortium, measures how DE&I is progressing in the retail sector could therefore not be timelier. This fifth edition holds up a mirror to our sector to help understand how diverse retail businesses are – particularly at leadership level – but also across the workforce. For the past three years, it has also incorporated feelings of inclusion among retail colleagues. Having published our first report with the BRC here back in 2021, now, we are not only able to take a snapshot of where the sector is but to also clearly track the progress over time.

The report draws on three sources. Firstly, as we have in each of the five years, MBS has been out in the field speaking with over 100 Chairs, CEOs and CPOs of the largest retailers in the sector operating in the UK, and carrying out quantitative research analysing the top three leadership levels in these organisations.
Secondly, the BRC has collected data from 53 of the companies that have signed the BRC D&I Charter, representing a third of the total UK retail workforce to analyse the diversity of their employees.
And thirdly, drawing on the Retail Trust’s data on wellbeing and happiness in the sector, we have also been able to look through another lens at how inclusive retail really is – the employee lens. Now in its third year of analysis, we have been able to build a picture over time on feelings of belonging within the workforce.
This year, we found that despite the majority of retailers still having DE&I on the agenda, progress has been mixed. There are certainly things to celebrate. The continued diversification of retail leadership teams is clear. Now, women make up 60% of the retail workforce overall, and around 50% of Board, ExCo and ExCo-1. This is a vast improvement when compared with when our data collection began in 2021; back then these figures sat closer to 30% for leadership roles.

Many retailers have shifted their DE&I focus away from gender and race / ethnicity, to trying to change the dial on neurodiversity and social mobility within their organisations. 75% of retailers we spoke to said they do have social mobility represented at senior level, a rise from 70% last year – and, anecdotally, many organisations have noted that more colleagues are identifying as neurodiverse.
However, somewhat concerningly, ethnic minority representation at leadership level, has dropped significantly over the past year. Ethnic diversity representation at Board level dropped from 12% last year, to just 8% this year, and Direct Reports level has fallen to 6.1%. These figures are still ahead of those recorded in 2021, but only marginally. In other words, there has been no visible progress in retailers appointing more ethnically diverse senior leaders over the past 5 years.
Equally as worrying is the data that the Retail Trust collects for our research on feelings of inclusion – surveying thousands of employees from across retail organisations. This year, their findings have highlighted that, despite the majority of organisations prioritising DE&I and having co-ordinated strategies, these are not translating into feelings of belonging for the retail workforce. In particular, those who chose ‘other’ or ‘prefer not to say’ to describe their sexual orientation, those who described their ethnicity as Black/African/Caribbean, and those who are between the ages of 25 and 34 saw the lowest feelings of inclusion. This is similar to last year although the drop from ages 16-24 from highest to second lowest on feelings of inclusion is something to note.

The retail sector is leaning into challenges on every front at the moment: from difficult trading, to increased employment costs, to a shoplifting epidemic (often with violence against staff attached). In this environment – and the political climate in the US – there is a risk of DE&I being de-prioritised and, consequently falling off the radars of CEOs and Boards.
As companies have focused their attention elsewhere smaller retailers with dedicated D&I teams have been reconsidering the necessity of these positions – and many organisations, once again, are seeking to justify the “commercial upside” of DE&I initiatives – it is no longer enough just to support DE&I because it is the right thing to do.
Each year, this research is a reminder that retail is an influential sector in the UK, employing nearly three million people and creating revenues of more than £500 billion. Helen Dickinson OBE, CEO of the BRC said of the launch of the report: “Retail should be immensely proud of the efforts that have been made to ensure more women have a seat at the executive table. The work on achieving true diversity and inclusion must not stop until we get where the industry needs to be.” There has been immense progress since our research began in 2021, and there are representation areas that retail is excelling at (age and LGBTQ+ are particular strengths) – however, the work generally is a long way from being done. Perhaps now more than ever, it is imperative that retail continues to reflect on its inclusivity and to ensure that the agenda and work that has been undertaken over recent years doesn’t slip. I am confident that with continued deliberate action, we will see positive change towards a more diverse and inclusive sector in the years to come. As we see from the Target example in America, consumers want retailers who take the DE&I agenda seriously – and are representative of the full UK population.
You can read the full report here. I’d love to hear what you think.