Sainsbury’s share price falls as profits plummet 18 per cent, dividend slashed in going price war November 11, 2015 Update: Sainsbury's share price has fallen six per cent so far today, after revealing a nearly 18 per cent fall in profit, despite slashing its interim dividend by a third. The figures Sainsbury's group sales were down two per cent to £13.6bn for the 28 weeks to 26 September, while retail sales were down 0.1 per cent excluding fuel. Like-for-likes dropped [...]
Christmas 2015: Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda predicted to clean up this festive season – but Aldi, M&S and Lidl will beat Morrisons November 10, 2015 Black Friday might be set to be less of a big deal this year but Christmas is going nowhere. In fact, the UK is expected to spend £16.5bn on food, drink and presents during the festive season – up 2.5 per cent from last year. That's an average of £442 per person, according to data from [...]
Aldi, Google and Lidl top Global Brand Simplicity Index: These are the best brands for getting their message across November 9, 2015 Aldi and Lidl are shaking up the supermarket sector in more than one way. Not only are they undercutting the competition and forcing the Big Four into a Mexican stand-off over prices, the German grocers are also showing them how it's done when it comes to getting their message across. Aldi has topped the sixth annual Global [...]
Christmas adverts 2015: John Lewis, M&S, Curry’s PC World, Asda or Argos – which retailer gets the gold star for best ad? November 6, 2015 The retailer race to be top of the tree this Christmas is on. Retailers including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Iceland have been teasing their Christmas advertising for weeks, but now the majority of the campaigns are officially launched, who will be sitting pretty at the top of the Christmas list? This year it’s clear than [...]
Christmas adverts 2015: Here are some of the best spots so far from Lidl, Asda, TK Maxx, PayPal and Mulberry November 4, 2015 We're just a few days into November but the clash of Christmas retailer ads has already begun, with a plethora of festive spots being released in the last couple of days. Watch: The 2015 John Lewis Christmas advert finally released The biggies are yet to drop – most notably John Lewis, which is artfully building [...]
Christmas adverts are great, but retailers including John Lewis, Asda and Lidl must live up to the hype November 4, 2015 You could feel the anticipation earlier this week as the first of the Christmas adverts landed. Asda and Lidl were among the first to showcase their festive offerings, while John Lewis announced its ad launch in advance, giving the nation several days to get excited before the big reveal, which happens at 8am this Friday. Watch: [...]
Boris Johnson announces plans to raise London’s Living Wage to £9.40 an hour November 2, 2015 London's Living Wage is set to rise again, after Boris Johnson and the Living Wage Foundation announced another round of hikes. In a speech this morning the Mayor of London said voluntary Living Wage will be raised to £9.40 an hour in the capital, from £9.15 an hour now. Meanwhile, the UK Living Wage will rise to £8.25 [...]
John Lewis’ Monty the Penguin beats Sainsbury’s, Harvey Nichols, Lidl to be crowned most compelling Christmas 2014 advert October 29, 2015 By now you will have met John Lewis' Monty, unwrapped Lidl's little present and cried over Sainsbury's wartime sharing. But which of these adverts is most likely to make you spend money? Despite the debate around whether Sainsbury's might have stolen John Lewis' crown for creating festive ads guaranteed to get you blubbing, it [...]
German discounter Aldi pledges to pay all UK staff above National Living Wage October 26, 2015 Aldi has set out to trump its supermarket rivals on pay by announcing today that it will pay all UK staff "significantly" above the living wage. The discount food retailer said all UK employees will be paid at least £8.40 an hour, and £9.45 in London from February 2016. This is ahead of the government’s national living wage of £7.20 an [...]
Sainsbury’s experiments with futuristic store formats, including faster checkouts, a SmartShop map of your shopping list and a focus on clothes October 23, 2015 You may never have to hear the phrase "unexpected item in the bagging area" again. Sainsbury's said today it's experimenting with futuristic new "SmartShop" technology, which will allow shoppers to scan their shopping lists at home, be shown a map of their items on their smartphone – and then pay by mobile app, meaning they don't have to queue [...]