Lidl sales grow 11 per cent over Christmas period January 10, 2020 Lidl UK saw an 11 per cent increase in sales over the Christmas period, outshining bigger supermarket rivals, its latest trading update revealed today. The German discount supermarket group said it was the fastest growing bricks and mortar supermarket over the four weeks ending 29 December. Read more: Lidl sales help it hit record stake [...]
Boxing Day shopping slump as retailers suffer sharp decline in footfall December 28, 2019 Boxing Day shopping footfall fell at its steepest rate in nine years due to rain and Black Friday deals. In the period up until noon on 26 December, footfall was down by 10.6 per cent on the same period as a year ago, according to data company Springboard. It was the biggest decline since 2010, [...]
Greene King toasts record Christmas trading amid cost-cutting plans January 8, 2019 Pub chain Greene King today recorded strong sales growth over Christmas and the New Year as it cashed in on festive drinking. Greene King said like-for-sale sales over the last two weeks rose 10.9 per cent, while Christmas day sales hit a record £7.7m. The chain, which operates almost 3,000 pubs, restaurants and hotels across [...]
Pets at Home groomed for 2020 glory after record Christmas January 22, 2020 Pets at Home is making progress in its bid to be top dog in the UK pet market, announcing a 12th consecutive quarter of growth in this morning’s trading update. The grooming company, which has said that it wants to generate 50 per cent of its revenue through services, saw group revenue grow 7.9 per [...]
What goes with Christmas? Your festive dinner wine woes solved December 19, 2018 To paraphrase the famous French proverb, a Christmas dinner without wine is like a day without sunshine. A recent survey showed our average spend on a bottle for Christmas dinner increases by 45 per cent, and you can double that if it’s a gift. So it’s clear that we like to put a bit of [...]
Mixed bag for Britain’s grocers as market cools despite record Christmas spending forecasts December 11, 2018 Shoppers have been taking fewer trips to the supermarket in recent weeks after a bumper summer of demand, according to new data that suggests Britain's grocery sector has slowed to its lowest rate of growth in more than a year. Despite projections that spending this Christmas will break UK records, the supermarket sector grew at two [...]
All Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers posts ‘good, not great’ Christmas sales January 9, 2020 Pub chain Mitchells & Butlers enjoyed a solid rise in like-for-like sales over Christmas, but suffered from strong comparative sales the year before. The core three-week festive period saw the firm’s pub chains – which include All Bar One, Ember Inns and Harvester – enjoy comparable sales growth of 5.6 per cent. Read more: Wetherspoon [...]
Vaccine or no vaccine, Britain must relearn how to live with risk December 4, 2020 The approval this week of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the UK heralds the beginning of the end of this hellish pandemic. People are rejoicing — and rightly so. A vaccine was the light at the end of the Covid tunnel, and with the first doses due to be administered in a matter of days, there [...]
Crypto will never hit critical mass until cybersecurity improves September 29, 2020 Another week, another hack, another exchange, another theft. Welcome to the recurring world of crypto attacks and the reason why appalling cryptocurrency security is holding back the industry from entering the mainstream. This time it was Singapore-based digital exchange KuCoin and its customers that were taken for $150 million after the exchange noticed large withdrawals [...]
London shopper numbers jumped 50 per cent last weekend despite UK coronavirus lockdown April 7, 2020 Retail footfall in the capital leapt on Sunday as the warm weather tempted Londoners to defy the UK coronavirus lockdown. Footfall soared 51.4 per cent on Sunday compared to the previous weekend, prompting concerns that sunny weather over the upcoming Easter weekend could encourage people to break lockdown rules. Across the UK footfall was up [...]