IKEA pushes back opening of Oxford Street site August 24, 2023 IKEA is pushing back the date to open its flagship store on Oxford Street, with shoppers forced to hold out an extra 12 months to buy flat pack goods on the iconic London street. Two years ago the Swedish retailer inked a £378m deal to takeover the former Topshop site, after its parent company Arcadia collapsed [...]
Sales surge for Zara owner Inditex as shoppers update summer wardrobe June 7, 2023 Zara owner Inditex reported a 16 per cent uptick in sales in its spring and summer collection, as the fashion giant’s new trends continue to lure in shoppers despite the cost of living crisis. Inditex, which is the world’s biggest fashion retailer, racked in €1.2bn (£1.03bn) in net profit in the first quarter of the [...]
Asos approached in £1bn takeover bid by Turkish fast fashion peer June 4, 2023 A Turkish retailer backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has reportedly offered a £1bn bid to take over Asos, in a fresh knock of confidence for the future of the digital fashion brand. Trendyol, an up-and-coming fast fashion retailer, was understood to have approached Asos in late December, when the brand was facing dwindling sales [...]
Retailers hit with fresh blow as nearly 50 per cent of Brits think the high street is ‘no longer relevant’ May 29, 2023 Nearly half of Brits believe that high streets are no longer relevant, with new data showing that the public is craving a change to their local high street in order to continue visiting it. The data, published by IT company Accenture, comes as retail experts have forecasted that up to 18,000 stores could vanish off [...]
London: Shot in the arm for West End as Uniqlo UK boss says Covent Garden is the place to be April 27, 2023 Fashion chain Uniqlo said it was committed to London after opening its second store in six months. Alessandro Dudech, chief operating officer at Uniqlo UK said the company regarded it as honour to be opening a store in Covent Garden. He said it was an area of London with “cultural and retail heritage”. He added: [...]
Oxford Street on cusp of something really ‘special’, New West End chief says April 23, 2023 Oxford Street is on the cusp of something “really special” and “exciting”, the chief of the New West End company has said, as store development and a boost in international tourism signals a return to better times for London’s most iconic shopping district. Dee Corsi, who oversees operations for the retail strip which spans from [...]
Retail: 40 per cent of high street shops will have to be repurposed or they will ‘wither on the vine’, local leaders warn March 23, 2023 Some 40 per cent of high street shops will have to be repurposed or they will “wither on the vine” as the demand for physical retail dwindles, local leaders have warned. According to a survey by trade body Revo and consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton, as first reported by The Guardian, the need to reinvent retail [...]
American candy stores or retail hub? What might be next for Oxford Street March 19, 2023 It has been three years since the UK was plunged into its first-ever full scale lockdown – forcing the majority of stores in London’s West End to temporarily cease trading and arguably altering the state of physical retail forever. The pandemic forced once seemingly indestructible retailers such as Debenhams, Topshop, and Gap off Oxford Street, [...]
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group reduces stake in Hugo Boss as shares dip January 6, 2023 Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, the owner of brands such as Sports Direct and House of Fraser, has reduced its stake in Hugo Boss after previously upping its investment into the luxury fashion house. Frasers Group said it now owns 3.9 per cent of Hugo Boss’s total share capital, a decline from the 4.3 per cent [...]
Next boss Lord Wolfson: London’s High Streets had ‘more to worry about’ four years ago despite loss of brands like Topshop January 5, 2023 Next boss Lord Wolfson has “less reason to worry about the high street” compared to a few years ago, on the tail of a slew of household names shuttering. Physical retail was in a less concerning position than in recent years, when a switch to online shopping signalled a death knell for many staple retailers, [...]