Secondary fundraising by retailers nears £2bn as firms eye M&A opportunities May 10, 2021 Listed retail companies have raised nearly £2bn in the past year as they sought to strengthen their balance sheets amid the pandemic. Now, they are starting to eye M&A opportunities. In recent years, listed firms in the UK have relied less on the public markets with private equity firms often considered a more attractive option. [...]
High street decline May 5, 2021 With high streets in turmoil and recovery slow, high street graveyards are becoming a common sight across the UK. The past 12 months have not been easy for the vast majority of companies, in particular for those without an online platform. However, the struggle of the high street is not a new problem. Rewind a few years [...]
High street recovery blown off course as footfall drops 6.1 per cent May 4, 2021 Wind and rain blew the high street recovery off course this week as footfall dropped 6.1 per cent, according to figures from retail insight company Springboard. The number of shoppers across all retail destinations fell by two per cent last week from the week before. Meanwhile, footfall rose by 2.8 per cent in shopping centres [...]
There is a generation of small businesses hungry to reinvent the high street May 4, 2021 You’d be forgiven for thinking the story of our British high streets was all about the evacuation of large retailers. Debenhams, Mothercare, Topshop, Peacocks barely scratch the surface of the total exodus which has seen 11,000 shops close in just 12 months. Many have been quick to explain that the pandemic has simply accelerated an inevitable, crumbling demise. While our high streets might look bleak right now as larger companies withdraw, small businesses are [...]
Cash down the back of the sofa: Loaf readies for £70m sale May 2, 2021 Home furnishings retailer Loaf is reportedly exploring options for a sale as it looks to cash in on pandemic-driven increased demand. Industry sources told The Times that a sale could raise as much as £70m. Read more: Bargain bin: Topshop’s former Oxford Street site on sale for £420m Loaf was born out of The Sleep [...]
Bargain bin: Topshop’s former Oxford Street site on sale for £420m May 2, 2021 For years it was the jewel in the crown of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire. But with the collapse of Arcadia last November, the former home of Topshop on Oxford Street is now on the market for a cool £420m. Marketing materials seen by The Times suggest the property will offer a “new age retail [...]
Asos bags record profit as pandemic continues to drive sales April 8, 2021 Asos’ profit has soared to record levels as the online fashion retailer has continued to benefit from the boom in demand for online shopping during the pandemic. The ecommerce giant reported this morning that adjusted profit before tax – not including acquisition costs – hit £112.9m in the six months ended 28 February, a £82.8m [...]
Singled out: This year’s billionaire Brits April 7, 2021 Forbes released its highly anticipated billionaire list yesterday morning which has left regular folks pinching purse strings in hopes to add another zero to their bank accounts. The UK’s home-grown billionaires did not make it into the lucrative top 10, which was dominated by tech big dogs: Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon [...]
The retail behemoths of the future will be the ones crafting a seamless online platform April 3, 2021 A casual observer of the much publicised takeovers of high street behemoths like Debenhams by online retailers such as Boohoo would be tempted to conclude that having an online presence is the swiftest hack for a brand to succeed in the current retail climate. But that is not the case. The UK may have leapfrogged [...]
Top of the shops: Asos sales growth set to continue due to lockdown gains April 1, 2021 Asos is set to report a further jump in earnings and sales as continuing lockdown restrictions have kept consumers shopping online. Revenue is expected to jump 22 per cent to around £1.95bn when it updates shareholders on its trading performance for the half year to February. Earnings are also expected to surge 135 per cent [...]