Malcolm Walker’s many lives: How Iceland hopes to fight off profit slump June 10, 2015 Malcolm Walker has more business lives than a cat. He built his frozen food empire Iceland from a humble shop in Shropshire in 1970 into a £2bn turnover business 30 years later, before hitting a financial iceberg. Walker was forced to step down as chairman in 2001 after the Financial Services Authority launched an [...]
Tesco loses market share as more than half of Brits now shop at Aldi and Lidl August 27, 2014 Tesco's rival Asda has eaten away at its market share, while more than half of Brits now shop at budget grocers Aldi and Lidl, according to Kantar Worldpanel figures. The data released this morning shows over the 12 weeks to 17 August, grocery price inflation has fallen for the 11th consecutive period and is [...]
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 [...]
Aldi becomes sixth biggest food retailer but sales growth slows April 8, 2015 ALDI has overtaken Waitrose as the UK’s sixth biggest supermarket, according to figures out yesterday that also cautioned that growth among the discounters was slowing. Aldi’s sales grew by 16.8 per cent in the 12 weeks to 30 March compared with a year earlier, taking its market share to 5.3 per cent, data from Kantar [...]
Dave Lewis admits long road ahead for Tesco recovery April 22, 2015 Tesco boss Dave Lewis admitted yesterday that he faced a larger task than expected turning around the struggling supermarket giant, as it reported the worst results in its 96-year history. Lewis – known as “Drastic Dave” for his radical overhaul of businesses at Unilever and now at Tesco – acknowledged that the task of turning [...]
Tesco closures prompted by discount rivals January 29, 2015 DISCOUNT rivals Aldi and Lidl could be the reason that supermarket giant Tesco decided to shut 43 of its stores. The retail group announced earlier this month that it was closing unprofitable branches across the UK, and yesterday revealed which stores it had singled out. Of the 43 listed, 74 per cent are within two [...]
Grocery price war continues: Tesco’s rebound hurts Asda as Aldi reaches record market share March 10, 2015 Tesco's return to growth is stealing market share from Asda, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel. The sector as a whole is still hugely competitive: the grocery price war has driven supermarket deflation to a record level of 1.6 per cent for the 12 weeks to March 1. Kantar estimated that this had [...]
Morrisons boss says customers key to survival May 7, 2015 MORRISONS new chief executive David Potts said yesterday that it would take more weeks of listening to customers and staff to understand how to bring the “British underdog” back to life, as it reported a further drop in sales. In his first trading update since taking over the reins in March, Potts said he had [...]
Morrisons share price down after sales fall, despite slower rate under new boss David Potts May 7, 2015 The figures The Bradford-based retailer said that like-for-likes excluding fuel were down 2.9 per cent in the 13 weeks to 13 May. However, this was slightly less than analysts' forecasts of a decline of three per cent. Shares in Morrisons were trading down two per cent at 176.2 pence per share this morning. Why it's interesting [...]
Troubled grocer Morrisons set for FTSE 100 demotion June 1, 2015 Morrisons is facing relegation from the FTSE 100 this month, having been earmarked for demotion by the stock market's committee. The troubled supermarket, whose share price has fallen more than 15.5 per cent in a year, is the company “nearest to the 111th threshold” to enter the FTSE 250, the London Stock Exchange said [...]