HRH The Princess Royal to support retail worker through patronage at leading charity

Succeeding her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal has assumed patronage of the Retail Trust, a charity dedicated to the welfare of retail workers established way back in 1832.

Retail Trust is a known name in among retailers and retail workers. It is known for improving the lives through wellbeing services, vocational and career development programmes, and supported living estates.

The charity offers support through physical, emotional, financial, vocational and educational wellbeing and for the over 55s in supported living services.

Queen Elizabeth II became the Retail Trust’s Patron in 1948 and continued to support the charity’s fundraising events and meet with staff and residents from its supported living estates for retired retail workers throughout her subsequent 70-year reign as monarch.

Welcoming the The Princess Royal, Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said, “We couldn’t be more honoured that The Princess Royal has become our Patron and in doing so continues the Retail Trust’s 74-year relationship with The Royal Family.

“We’re all extremely grateful for the long-standing support of The late Queen and we’re now very much looking forward to engaging HRH The Princess Royal, our new Patron, with the Retail Trust’s work to protect the health and happiness of UK retail workers.”

The charity works with more than 200 retailers to improve the hope, health and happiness of their staff and runs five supported living estates for people retired from the retail industry, or who are in the care of someone working in or retired from the sector.

Most recently, hundreds of retail workers got free training from the charity to help protect them against an expected rise in abusive incidents over Christmas.

Part of workshop was to help shop staff and delivery drivers feel safer during the busy festive shopping period, more than 1,300 people from over 200 retailers registered for the masterclasses on managing challenging situations in London and online.

Businesses including H&M, bp, Schuh and The Entertainer were among those to sign up their staff for the free training where they were provided with new skills to deal with difficult experiences and behaviour.