Retail analysts say breaking up food and fashion group would make sense in challenging business environment
Primark may break free from Kingsmill, Twinings and the sugar business this week when Associated British Foods announces plans on a mooted demerger.
The potential split comes at a tricky time for the group controlled by the billionaire Weston family, with its fashion and food arms facing tough competition and rising costs.
Continue reading...‘Sustained outperformance’ merits pay rise, says company after it ups profit guidance to £1.2bn for year to January 2027
The Next chief executive, Simon Wolfson, took home more than £7m last year, his highest ever pay package, and could be handed up to £9.27m this year after the retailer announced plans to increase his basic salary and bonuses.
The listed company said it was increasing its pay deal for the long-term leader of the fashion and homewares retailer, which now controls a string of brands in the UK including Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Cath Kidston, Reiss and FatFace, as his remuneration was 30% below the average for FTSE 100 bosses.
Continue reading...Credit can be used to offset future bills as full-year losses at UK division widen to £41.3m and it adds 92 stores
Starbucks’s UK retail arm received a £13.7m corporation tax credit last year, even as its sales increased 6% and it added more than 90 stores.
The credit, which can be used to offset future tax bills, comes after losses widened to £41.3m in the 12 months to the end of September – almost matching the £40m it paid in royalty and licence fees to its parent company.
Continue reading...Almost 2,000 jobs will be created, with retailer vying to overtake Morrisons as Britain’s fifth largest supermarket
Lidl is to open 50 new UK stores in the year ahead – as well as its first pub – as it aims to overtake Morrisons as the country’s fifth largest supermarket chain.
The German-owned retailer has begun building a pub in east Belfast in response to strict local licensing laws that cap the number of premises that can sell alcohol.
Continue reading...Retailer faces public outcry over treatment of Walker Smith, who tackled shoplifter stealing Easter eggs at London store
Waitrose is under growing pressure to reinstate an employee of 17 years who was sacked after tackling a shoplifter who was trying to steal Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.
The retailer has faced public outcry over its treatment of Walker Smith, who was fired two days after he stopped the shoplifter taking items from the Easter egg display.
Continue reading...Walker Smith, 54, who worked for retailer for 17 years, says he grabbed bag from thief before they escaped
A Waitrose employee of 17 years has described his devastation after being sacked for stopping a shoplifter who had ransacked a display of Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.
Walker Smith, a shop assistant at a branch of Waitrose in Clapham Junction, south London, was going about his normal duties when a customer stopped him. “They told me someone had filled up a Waitrose bag with the eggs,” he said.
Continue reading...Bank of England survey in March shows chief financial officers foresee 3.7% increase over coming year
Companies in the UK expect to raise their prices more rapidly over the coming months as the war in the Middle East drives up costs, Bank of England research shows.
The Bank’s regular survey of more than 2,000 chief financial officers conducted last month, after the Iran conflict began, shows they now expect to raise their prices by 3.7% over the coming year.
Continue reading...Regulator fears use of ‘covert marketing strategies’ by Sephora and Benefit might fuel compulsive habits
Italian regulators are investigating Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics over the apparent use of “covert marketing strategies” to sell beauty products to young girls that might be fuelling an unhealthy skincare obsession known as “cosmeticorexia”.
The Italian Competition Authority said it was looking into promotions for skincare products such as face masks, serums and anti-ageing creams that in some cases appeared to target girls under 10.
Continue reading...Retailer says higher fuel and factory costs may hit supply chains and lead to ‘significant increase in prices’
The boss of Next has said clothing prices could rise by 4% to 10% if conflict in the Middle East extends into the autumn and factories are hit by higher fuel and fabric costs.
Simon Wolfson said the clothing and home retailer had so far seen little disruption to its supply chain.
Continue reading...Payment of 2% at employee-owned partnership follows sales increase to £13.4bn
The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose has paid an annual bonus to workers for the first time in four years after underlying profits rose by 6%.
The retail group’s 69,000 employees – which it calls partners – will share £35m, the equivalent of 2% of salary, after it recorded an increase in sales and profits. The payout amounts to about one extra week of pay.
Continue reading...Payment for Inditex founder, the world’s 15 richest person, tops last year’s dividend of €3.1bn
The billionaire founder of Zara is to receive a company record €3.23bn (£2.8bn) dividend this year from the world’s biggest fashion retailer.
Amancio Ortega, who still controls 59% of Spain’s Inditex and whose daughter Marta Ortega Pérez is now chair, will receive half his dividend in May and half in November – as will other shareholders.
Continue reading...Business lobby groups say ‘taking the risk’ of employing less experienced workers is being avoided
British companies are struggling to afford to hire young people after a long period of rising costs that have hit profit margins and derailed recruitment plans, business leaders have said.
Rising labour costs including increases to the minimum wage and employer’s national insurance by the government have put young people at the back of the queue when employers consider recruitment, business lobby groups have told MPs.
Continue reading...Purbeck Capital Partners seals deal for business and property rights of toy with model railway maker
For almost six decades Hornby has watched Scalextric drive revenues for its hobby business but on Friday the company said it had decided to sell the famous slot car racing brand for £20m to a little known buyer.
The model railway company, which also sells toy planes and cars under the Airfix and Corgi brands, has sold the Scalextric business and intellectual property rights to Purbeck Capital Partners.
Continue reading...Purbeck Capital Partners seals deal for business and property rights of toy with model railway maker
For almost six decades Hornby has watched Scalextric drive revenues for its hobby business but on Friday the company said it had decided to sell the famous slot car racing brand for £20m to a little known buyer.
The model railway company, which also sells toy planes and cars under the Airfix and Corgi brands, has sold the Scalextric business and intellectual property rights to Purbeck Capital Partners.
Continue reading...Firm’s automated warehouses are struggling to compete against swift deliveries from stores by bike riders
Only six years ago, the boss of Ocado Group was writing the obituary for supermarkets as he predicted that a surge in online grocery shopping during the pandemic had brought forward the hi-tech future.
“Not every store will disappear, but there will be a dramatic shift,” Tim Steiner said at the height of the Covid pandemic, when shopping from the sofa became the only option for many.
Continue reading...Major restructure by retail technology business will lead to reduction of about 5% of global workforce
Ocado is to cut 1,000 jobs as the retail technology business attempts to slash costs by £150m in a major restructure.
The group confirmed about 5% of its global workforce is being cut, with about two-thirds of the job losses affecting its UK operations.
Continue reading...Police say UK entrepreneur Quentin Griffiths fell from 17th floor of an 18-floor condominium on 9 February
Quentin Griffiths, the co-founder of the online fashion retailer Asos, has died after falling from an apartment building in the Thai seaside resort city of Pattaya.
Police told Reuters that the 58-year-old had fallen from the 17th floor of an 18-storey condominium on 9 February.
Continue reading...January increase of 1.8% beats forecasts and was also driven by shoppers snapping up jewellery online
Retail sales in Great Britain rose 1.8% in January, the largest monthly increase in almost two years, according to official data, as heavy discounting and post-Christmas sales drew consumers back to bigger ticket purchases.
The rise easily beat forecasts of a 0.2% rise and was partly driven by sales of artwork and antiques sales in January, alongside continued strong sales from online jewellers, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. It was the biggest monthly rise since May 2024.
Continue reading...BRC survey finds finance bosses expect technology to improve productivity, with 69% pessimistic about the economy
UK retailers are planning to cut staff hours and jobs amid rising employment costs and pessimism about the economy.
Almost two-thirds (61%) of finance bosses at retail companies said they planned to reduce working hours or cut overtime, according to the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body that represents most big retailers. More than half (55%) said they would cut head office jobs and 42% said they would reduce jobs in stores.
Continue reading...Senior figure allegedly referred to customers buying ‘highly processed food’ and denigrated Indian employees
Campbell’s has dismissed an executive who allegedly referred to the soup company’s products as being made for “poor people” and denigrated its Indian employees.
Martin Bally, who was the vice-president of Campbell’s information technology department, was recorded making the alleged comments by another employee.
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