New Look confirms £780m sale to South African magnate Christo Wiese’s Brait May 15, 2015 Britain’s second-largest women’s clothing retailer confirmed today that it has a new owner. Private equity firm Brait, owned by South African billionaire Christol Wiese, has bought a 90 per cent stake in the fashion chain in a £780m deal. The figure is significantly less than the £1.9bn mooted in reports. The deal marks the first [...]
Labour leadership race: Andy Burnham woos business with calls to “celebrate spirit of enterprise” May 29, 2015 Andy Burnham will today admit that Labour got it wrong on business and the economy, and that the party cannot win the next election if voters believe it gives the workshy an "easy ride". In a speech to business leaders, the frontrunner in the race to succeed Ed Miliband as leader will say he is [...]
Morrisons, Tesco, Ocado and Marks & Spencer’s share prices soar after UK food sector shows signs of growth February 10, 2015 Supermarkets led the FTSE 100 higher this afternoon, after figures revealed the grocery sector was in growth once again. Morrisons' share price had recorded the biggest gains at pixel time, rising 5.5 per cent. This was on the back of Kantar figures out this morning, showing its sales had fallen 0.4 per cent, the [...]
Family incomes rise by £16 per week in boost to living standards April 1, 2015 Living standards are on the up, with the average family benefiting from an extra £16 in disposable income in February, according to today’s income tracker from Asda. The average household had £184 to spend, after budgeting for necessities. That is up 9.2 per cent on the year. The 3.3 per cent fall in the cost of [...]
Supermarket share: Rise of discounters Aldi and Lidl continues – although Sainsbury’s performs well May 6, 2015 Sales at discounters Aldi and Lidl grew 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in the past year, data published this morning shows. On the day Sainsbury's posted its first loss in 10 years, that's significant. More on this story: Sainsbury's reports its first loss in a decade The figures, published by Kantar Worldpanel, [...]
How Sainsbury’s, Tesco and even discounters Aldi and Lidl reined in property expansion plans and ended the supermarket turf wars May 6, 2015 In the never-ending quest for growth, for decades supermarkets held a major arsenal in their weaponry – land. But not any more. Sainsbury's today revealed it took a £682m writedown on its property portfolio in another sign the decades-long land grab by supermarkets has failed to pay off. Tesco's property writedowns run into the billions [...]
Amazon Prime Day is not the new Black Friday as British retailers have little appetite for mega sales… yet July 15, 2015 Not content with helping bring the horror of shoppingeddon to the UK in the form of Black Friday, Amazon is now attempting to create its own, even bigger version, with Prime Day. Last year Black Friday went from being a US tradition us Brits mocked as the embodiment of America's tendency to take things to [...]
Asos hires Capquest boss Helen Ashton as new chief financial officer April 14, 2015 The chief financial officer merry-go-round continues. Today, it's the turn of Asos, which has hired Helen Ashton to take on the role being vacated by Nick Beighton. Ashton, who is currently chief executive of debt management business Capquest, will join in September. She will join the board at the same time. Beighton has already moved [...]
Sainsbury’s to shed 800 store jobs in bid to save £500m in supermarket price war April 23, 2015 Sainsbury’s is set to axe 800 jobs in stores as part of a shake-up aimed at saving £500m over the next three years to better position itself in the ongoing supermarket price war. The supermarket chain said yesterday that it plans to remove department and deputy managers from certain stores in order to invest [...]
Morrisons the only “big four” supermarket in growth June 2, 2015 Is this a case of too little too late or the beginning of a turnaround? Morrisons was the only one of the “big four” supermarkets to grow over the last 12 weeks, according to latest figures by Kantar Worldpanel. The supermarket, which this week faces demotion from the FSTE 100, managed a sluggish 0.1 [...]