You may have already read the story about Briants of Risborough unfortunately becoming the latest victims of a substantial showroom theft this week? Not pleasant reading at all.

The hope with sharing the information both here in Service Dealer and on social media, is that it raises awareness amongst the network that there are individuals out there, seemingly stealing to order. Dealers need to remain vigilant, have strong security measures in place and look out for one another.

It must be such a horrible experience for Briants and, depressingly, one which it seems is becoming increasingly common for dealers across the country.

It's enough to utterly zap your confidence..

But how are dealers feeling in general? We touched on it last week, discussing the prolonged dry spell, how for some dealerships the combination of the weather conditions and the World Cup had seen a real slow-down in sales. Add into that mix the ongoing lack of clarity over Brexit and one can start to presume that things really must be tough out there at the moment?

But how confident are our dealer readers feeling for their business's prospects? We are running a short survey today which we'd really appreciate your contributions to.

There was a story in the Daily Telegraph a couple of weeks ago headlined "Confidence now 'on a knife edge' for small businesses". The piece said that whilst more SME owners remain positive than pessimistic, the evidence may be that the tide is turning.

The article quotes Will Brown of Impact Social who monitors Tweets from small businesses to assess their mood. He said, "There's a palpable sense that even the slightest false move on Brexit rocks small business confidence." Is that a feeling which pervades our industry?

Meanwhile, this week Bibby Financial Service released their latest SME Confidence Tracker Report. Apparently their first report this year back in April had shown "rebounding confidence amongst the UK’s small and medium sized businesses" due to notable progress between the Government and the EU throughout March. However, this most recent one, which follows government resignations and in-fighting, has seen confidence "tumbling" between April and July. The report says one-fifth of SMEs reflected that Brexit uncertainty was holding-back investment and stifling growth plans.

Is a political situation such as Brexit one which has direct impact upon how much outdoor power equipment is sold? Traditionally we say it's the weather which impacts most on this industry - and we all know what that's been like lately!

I did see a couple of other interesting statistics this week, which related to online sales. The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index said that June had seen 16.9% year-on-year growth of online retail sales. "Unsurprisingly," a statement from the organisation said, "the largest sector increase was seen in Garden, with a +49.9% YoY growth."

So is there evidence of this increased interest in the garden, spilling over into bricks and mortar dealerships? We'd really appreciate you taking a few moments today to let us know your current experiences.

You can take the Business Confidence Survey here and as ever there's scope for you to leave your comments. We will publish the results in the next issue of Service Dealer along with a selection of your thoughts.

Thanks in advance for your help.