7 UK retail bosses that have quit unexpectedly February 24, 2014 Mothercare’s future on the UK high street looked promising when Simon Calver, the former head of online movie rental service Lovefilm, was appointed by chairman Alan Parker two years ago to lead its turnaround efforts. The board banked on his online experience to overhaul its estate and turn the chain into a multi-channel retailer. But [...]
Morrisons loses market share to its competitors January 14, 2014 WM MORRISON’S troubles over Christmas were further underscored yesterday by figures that showed that the grocer was the only one of the big four supermarkets to suffer a fall in overall sales in the past 12 weeks. Kantar Worldpanel data showed the retailer’s market share dropped to 11.5 per cent in the 12 weeks to [...]
Bottom Line: Supermarket needs to focus on web and sales, not real estate January 12, 2014 THE debate being waged over whether Morrisons should sell some of its freehold estate surely misses the point about the grocery chain’s future. There is nothing wrong with the structure of Morrisons’ estate that a little tinkering can not remedy. And it will remain, as it has insisted, “overwhelmingly freehold” – that is as long [...]
Future is sweet for Nectar as it ranks top of the loyalty schemes December 10, 2013 NECTAR has become the country’s most popular loyalty scheme, with 16.8m subscribers. A staggering 50 per cent of households now swipe their Nectar card when shopping in stores and online and it has become more popular than both the Tesco Clubcard and the Boots Advantage card. Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury’s customer director, said: “Customers are increasingly [...]
The Power of Three: How big business could join government to support small companies March 10, 2014 IF I received a pound for every time a chief executive of a large firm said to me “we’d like to be the champions of small business”, I’d be comfortably off. However, over the past year, I’ve seen an increasing number of businesses not only voicing this statement, but acting on it. This is a [...]
Apple falls out of favour with UK consumers January 15, 2014 Apple has fallen out of favour with UK consumers, losing its coveted spot as one of the UK’s top 10 brands. Last year Apple’s iPad held the No 6 slot on YouGov’s BrandIndex report, but this year the technology giant is nowhere to be found. UK Top Brands 1. BBC iPlayer (no change)2. John Lewis [...]
Challenger banks face a Capital Catch 22: It’s time to level the playing field February 5, 2014 WANDER down any high street and you’ll see those well-known chain restaurants offering appetising food at a reasonable price. Then there are the one-off, often family-run eateries with their own unique menu – perhaps with a speciality that will one day become a staple of that household-name restaurant over the road. The larger chains, of [...]
Bottom Line: Christmas comes early for King November 13, 2013 THEY say good things come to those who wait. Yesterday, almost a week after rival retailers Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Morrisons released their Christmas adverts, the UK’s fastest growing supermarket revealed its own tear-jerker – a three-and-a-half minute mini-film that aired during last night’s Coronation Street. The film, which shows clips of ordinary [...]
Supermarket fuel war reignites as Tesco and Asda drop prices December 17, 2013 THE SUPERMARKET fuel price war sparked off once again yesterday, after two major chains introduced new price cuts, effective from this morning. Tesco and Asda are both dropping the price of petrol by up to 2p per litre and diesel by 1p per litre. Spokespersons from Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s confirmed yesterday that they were not [...]
Freezer King bags £542m as AO.com soars February 26, 2014 AO WORLD founder John Roberts is sitting on cash and shares worth around £542m after the online white goods empire he founded 14 years ago made a grand entrance onto the London Stock Exchange yesterday, with shares leaping 32 per cent. Roberts has reduced his 40 per cent stake to 28.6 per cent, the company [...]