Fortnum & Mason hires former John Lewis and Matches Fashion exec as new CEO November 3, 2020 Fortnum & Mason has appointed a former John Lewis and Matches Fashion executive as its new boss. Tom Athron will join the Piccadilly department store on 1 December, to replace current chief executive Ewan Venters who will step down in January 2021. Athron was most recently the chief operating officer of luxury fashion website Matches [...]
Deliveroo to roll out to 100 new towns and cities in 2021 January 12, 2021 Deliveroo will expand its service to 100 new towns and cities across the UK in 2021, following increased demand for business in 2020. The towns and cities earmarked for expansion include Yeovil, Bangor (Northern Ireland), East Kilbride, King’s Lynn, Scarborough, Llanelli and Exmouth. The move will mean the takeaway delivery app is available to 4 [...]
Drinking around the world: Romanian wines to die for April 20, 2021 My introduction to Romanian wine was inauspicious. It came in one of Count Dracula’s tourist castle hotels in Transylvania. We sat around a coffin-shaped table as a black-suited waiter approached and smiled, revealing not particularly threatening canines. As he brandished the wine list he said, “May I have the pleasure of providing sir with a [...]
Government to offer free home Covid tests for businesses in back to work push March 28, 2021 The government is set to offer businesses free home test kits for employees, in a bid to get staff back to the workplace after almost a year of home working. In a major expansion of the government’s workplace testing scheme, all businesses with more than 10 employees who cannot offer on-site testing will be eligible [...]
John Lewis hints at Christmas advert as retailer launches £5m charity initiative October 31, 2020 John Lewis has hinted at the content of its highly anticipated Christmas advert as it launched a charity campaign to feed more than 100,000 families over the festive period. The department store chain, which also owns Waitrose, will kick start an appeal in November to raise £5m for Fareshare and Home-Start to provide food, support [...]
John Lewis to convert almost half of Oxford Street store into offices October 28, 2020 John Lewis has been given the green light to convert almost half of its flagship Oxford Street department store into office space amid turmoil for the UK’s retail sector. Westminster City Council last night granted the high street store conditional planning permission to transform three to eight floors into dual-use space. The local authority voted [...]
Waitrose removes ‘ugly’ Easter chocolate duckling from shelves after complaints of racism April 9, 2019 Waitrose has been forced to apologise and temporarily remove a trio of chocolate ducklings from its shelves, after customers complained about the darkest one being called “Ugly”. One customer tweeted to say it “doesn’t look good at all. Thousands of other options… why ugly?????” Read more: Telegraph hires Waitrose editor who resigned after vegan row [...]
The nation’s health is priority number one, but we must continue the great work we’ve done to reduce plastics use August 28, 2020 Recent government figures revealed that since the introduction of the 5p carrier bag charge, new carrier bag sales have fallen by 59 per cent in the past year in England’s major supermarkets. This translates to shoppers buying, on average, just four new bags per year compared to 10 the previous year. This is a significant [...]
Sainsbury’s launches partnership with Deliveroo October 30, 2020 Sainsbury’s has launched a trial with Deliveroo in the latest partnership for the delivery app, which has seen demand for groceries soar during the coronavirus pandemic. The supermarket will offer the on-demand delivery service from its North End Crescent convenience story in Hammersmith, before expanding the trial to a further nine branches across the UK [...]
Shakespeare: John Lewis ad tugs at our purse strings December 16, 2020 John Lewis’ Christmas advert is undoubtedly a highlight of the festive season for many, with the retail department store’s commercial broadcast increasing in budget, production value and celebrity soundtracks every year. However, as with many things this year, there was uncertainty as to whether there would even be an advert. According to Waitrose’s executive director, [...]