Supermarket price wars: Money can’t buy me love…or can it? July 24, 2014 As another CEO falls on his multi-million pound sword this week; the convenient simplification of the problem into pricing and the rampant value-retailer onslaught seems to deliver a somewhat myopic view of the task facing the brooding monoliths that are the big retailers. While Mr. Clarke was seemingly handed a metaphorical deuce to seven [...]
Bottom Line: As the going gets tough, Justin King gets going June 11, 2014 There was a lot of back-slapping at Sainsbury’s yesterday, with Justin King talking up his successor, and his successor lavishing praise on the soon-to-depart chief executive. “When Justin started at the business we were serving 14m customers a week, and now we’re serving 24m a week. That’s a great achievement,” enthused Mike Coupe. King insists the [...]
Justin King confident Sainsbury’s will still outperform June 11, 2014 Sainsbury’s outgoing chief executive Justin King said he was confident that the supermarket chain would continue to outperform its rivals long after he had gone, despite the group reporting a fall in like-for-like sales for a second consecutive quarter. King has overseen nine years of unbroken growth during his time at the company and has [...]
Tesco to splash £11m on Dave Lewis and Philip Clarke rescue operation July 21, 2014 Tesco will spend more than £1.8m on its new chief executive Dave Lewis but up to £9.6m on departing boss Philip Clarke as the supermarket puts its faith in the industry outsider to turn its sales around. Clarke’s shock departure and his replacement with Unilever’s president of personal care, who will start in October, comes [...]
Morrisons warns of discounters’ growing threat June 26, 2014 MORRISONS boss Dalton Philips warned yesterday that discounters could grow to as much as 25 per cent of the grocery market if supermarkets fail to “face the brutal reality” of the changes taking place and fight back. Speaking at the British Retail Consortium’s annual symposium, Philips said the threat posed to the UK’s big four [...]
Brand Index: Price-conscious shoppers are feeling festive about Aldi October 1, 2013 ALDI has been on the rise this week. The discount grocer said its pre-tax profits had more than doubled in 2012, and during the year it attracted 1m additional shoppers. The company also revealed that it is launching a new own-brand line of cut-price luxury foods in time for the Christmas season. Aldi has a [...]
Why Tesco’s share price just fell to an 11 year low September 22, 2014 Another surprise announcement this morning from Tesco has further dampened the supermarket’s outlook when it really must have been hoping to move on from recent rough times. Shares fell more than 11 per cent to an 11-year low after announcing a £250m error in its first-half results. Whether its an accounting error or something worse, investigating the [...]
Aldi’s extra 1m customers help double profits September 30, 2013 DISCOUNT supermarket chain Aldi said yesterday it more than doubled its profits in the UK last year, as it lured more than a million shoppers from more upmarket rivals and grabbed a bigger share of the market. The German group, which will open its 500th UK store next month, posted a pre-tax profit of £157.9m [...]
Big four grocers all lose ground to discounters April 9, 2014 BRITAIN’S four biggest supermarket groups all lost market share over the last three months to German discounters Aldi and Lidl, with Sainsbury’s suffering the biggest drop in market share in ten years. Sainsbury’s has until this month been the only one of the big four to resist the pressure of the discounters and hold onto [...]
Big four grocers all lose ground to discounters April 8, 2014 BRITAIN’S four biggest supermarket groups all lost market share over the last three months to German discounters Aldi and Lidl, with Sainsbury’s suffering the biggest drop in market share in ten years. Sainsbury’s has until this month been the only one of the big four to resist the pressure of the discounters and hold onto [...]