Foreign buyers hungry for UK food takeovers November 24, 2013 THE WIDENING gap between discounters and upmarket retailers and a heightened focus on provenance following the horsemeat scandal is driving takeovers of British food brands, new research shows. The number of British heritage and independent brands being snapped up by domestic and overseas buyers is now at the highest level since 2006, according to a [...]
Sainsbury’s wins battle of the big supermarkets with rise in sales… October 2, 2013 SAINSBURY’S chief executive Justin King yesterday conceded that the days of Britons shopping at one supermarket were over as the grocer posted strong second quarter sales yesterday ahead of rivals. King said the growing strength of discounters such as Aldi reflected this change in shopping behaviour. “I should think all of our shoppers are shopping [...]
Supermarkets grow ahead of shopping malls December 8, 2013 THE AMOUNT of space being added by UK supermarkets has overtaken that being added by shopping centres for the first time, despite some retailers calling an end to the space race as consumers shift to shopping online. The pipeline of grocery developments has grown by 67 per cent, or 19.24m square feet (sq ft) since [...]
Inside Track: The EU’s rules to cap bankers’ bonuses aren’t working January 15, 2014 CREATE a loophole and bankers will leap through it quicker than you can say “deferred compensation”: that seems to be one of the axioms of the aftermath of the financial crisis. Examine the consequences of the European Commission’s cap on the multiple of salaries that banks can dish out in variable pay, though, and the [...]
Trouble ahead for Tesco as JP Morgan downgrades supermarket September 25, 2013 Tesco have been downgraded to underweight by J.P. Morgan. The supermarket is expected to underpeform due to structural changes in the UK food industry which may have a particularly damaging effect on Tesco. According to JP Morgan's Jaime Vazquez: In our view, pricing architecture is an industry problem, but is of most concern to Tesco [...]
Discounters grab market share from UK’s leading supermarkets October 22, 2013 SAINSBURY’S was the only one of the big four supermarkets to gain market share in the 12 weeks to 13 October as discounters continued to put pressure on Britain’s grocers, Data from Kantar Worldpanel out yesterday showed Aldi’s sales leapt by 31.7 per cent year-on-year, gaining record market share of 3.8 per cent against three [...]
Mutuals will stay high street bit players for many Christmases yet December 17, 2013 MUTUALS and co-operatives have been promoted as the acceptable side of business by both arms of the coalition. Nick Clegg has lauded the Waitrose and John Lewis model. Advisers to David Cameron, as well as Vince Cable, have argued that the banking sector would be more stable if more companies followed the mutual model. But [...]
Tesco hit by ratings warning as it unveils refreshed luxury range October 7, 2013 TESCO yesterday relaunched its Finest range of luxury produce, though the redesign was not enough to stop a debt rating warning from Moody’s last night. The supermarket, which spent tens of millions of pounds and the better part of a year on the redesign, has recently lost out on UK sales growth to both the [...]
Waitrose and discounters thriving September 24, 2013 DISCOUNT supermarket Aldi saw year-on-year sales growth of a record 32.7 per cent in the 12 weeks to 15 September, according to new industry data, as upmarket rival Waitrose also upped market share. Waitrose achieved growth of 9.7 per cent year-on-year, Kantar Worldpanel said, well above market growth of 4.2 per cent. But Tesco, which [...]
Bridgepoint in €585m deal September 3, 2013 PRET a Manger owner Bridgepoint yesterday beat off stiff competition to buy AHT Cooling, which supplies fridges and freezes to supermarkets including Lidl and Aldi. The private equity firm will pay €585m to Quadriga Capital and Partners group to takeover the Austrian-based company. City A.M. understands the deal is backed by about €280m of senior [...]