Banks suspend currency exchange after Travelex cyber attack January 8, 2020 High street banks Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are without foreign currency services after a cyber attack against forex giant Travelex. The banks, who get their foreign notes from Travelex, said supplies were running short after last week’s attack, in which hackers warned the firm that unless it paid $6m (£4.6m) they would [...]
Sainsbury’s stops selling fireworks following fears for pets October 18, 2019 Sainsbury’s has become the UK’s first big supermarket to stop selling fireworks across all its stores. The move followed a review of all of the supermarket’s products, Sainsbury’s said. Read more: Leon opts to launch new product range in major UK supermarket It also comes after a petition to ban the public sale of fireworks, [...]
Survive and thrive: Spencer Matthews’ low-alcohol brand is Clean-ing up June 5, 2020 London’s businesses have been forced to weather a storm they never saw coming, but many have pivoted to new ways of doing business. Today, City A.M. talks to the reality TV star-turned-entrepreneur Spencer Matthews about his Clean Liquor Company, selling low-alcohol spirits on Instagram and global ambitions For any business, at any time, consistently increasing [...]
‘Customers aren’t ready’: Sainsbury’s ends till-free store pilot at Holborn branch September 10, 2019 Sainsbury’s has said not all customers are ready for a till-free store as it ended a smartphone-only pilot scheme at a central London branch. The three-month trial came to an end as the supermarket reintroduced a manned till and two self-checkout points in it’s Holborn Circus store. Read more: Sainsbury’s partners with Deliveroo on pizza [...]
Are UK supermarkets ready for Brexit? September 25, 2019 “One can say very clearly what the direction will be: higher prices, less choice, and poorer quality, because all of those dimensions have been improved by these open trading relationships that we’ve had over the last 40 years […] Brexit, almost in whatever version it is, will introduce friction, it will introduce barriers. That makes [...]
City Moves for 29 January – Who’s switching jobs at TalkTalk, Countryside and SDL? January 29, 2020 Today’s City Moves includes TalkTalk, Countryside and SDL TalkTalk TalkTalk has hired the former BBC journalist and campaign strategist, Lucy Thomas, as director of corporate affairs. Lucy joins from the communications agency, Edelman, where she was senior director, leading campaigns and advising major brands like Uber, Sainsbury’s and Coca Cola on corporate reputation, PR, political [...]
Debenhams strengthens board as department store implements rescue plan December 10, 2019 Beleaguered department store Debenhams has appointed the former boss of Argos as a non-executive director in order to strengthen its board as it implements a turnaround plan. John Walden, who was chief executive of Home Retail Group until it sold Argos to Sainsbury’s in 2016 and is currently chairman of Naked Wines, has been appointed [...]
Ocado retains crown as Britain’s fastest-growing supermarket February 4, 2020 Ocado has retained its position as Britain’s fastest growing supermarket, with the online grocer achieving its quickest growth in the North of England. Ocado’s overall sales grew 11.2 per cent year-on-year during the quarter, with its market share rising 0.2 percentage points, according to data from Kantar. While over half of the grocer’s sales come [...]
Amazon strengthens dominance of UK e-commerce market December 10, 2019 Online retail giant Amazon increased its dominance of the UK e-commerce market this year, according to the latest research. Amazon boosted its market share from 28.8 per cent in 2018 to 30.1 per cent this year, accounting for $30bn in sales. Read more: Amazon nets Champions League rights The next largest player in the UK, [...]
Investors brace for rocky week of geopolitical tension January 5, 2020 Investors are bracing themselves for a rocky week’s trading which will be dominated by heightened tensions in the Middle East and feature a key US jobs report and many companies’ financial results. Traders started 2020 in a buoyant mood on Thursday of last week, with equity indices rising considerably. The US’s assassination of Iranian general [...]