Category Archives: Retail industry

UK e-commerce firm THG ends investment deal with Japan’s SoftBank

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Company, which owns sites such as Lookfantastic and Zavvi, blames ‘global macroeconomic conditions’

The online shopping group THG has ended an agreement under which the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank had agreed to invest in it, blaming “global macroeconomic conditions”.

The company formerly known as The Hut Group, which owns a range of internet health and beauty retailers, secured $730m (£610m) of new investment from a division of SoftBank to help fund expansion of its technology platform a few months before it listed in London.

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Aldi gives second pay rise in year amid high demand for UK workers

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Supermarket chain’s move comes as employers face fierce competition for staff after Covid and Brexit

Aldi has raised pay for shop workers for the second time in a year in the latest sign of the intense competition for workers in the UK.

From September, the grocery discounter is to put up hourly pay by 40p to a minimum of £10.50 outside the M25 and to £11.95 in London, an increase of at least 3.5%.

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France orders air-conditioned shops to save energy by shutting doors

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Minister says open doors lead to 20% more consumption as restrictions on illuminated signs also announced

Air-conditioned shops throughout France will have to keep their doors shut or risk a fine of €750 (£635), a French minister has announced, after the mayors of several major cities unveiled a similar rule during the country’s heatwave last week.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the minister for ecological transition, said leaving doors open with air conditioning on led to “20% more energy consumption and … is absurd”. A decree confirming the decision will be issued in the coming days.

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Prices fall as UK heatwave produces glut of soft fruit

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Yields of cherries, strawberries and blueberries could more than double on the same time last year

The UK heatwave has produced a glut in strawberry, cherry and blueberry harvests prompting a wave of discounts in stores and lower prices for British farmers.

Strawberry farmers said they were picking as much as 30% more fruit than usual, and blueberry growers at least 50% more this week as temperatures topped 40C on Tuesday in some parts of England. Yields are expected to be double that of the same week last year in the week ahead. Blackberry harvests are expected to be up 80% on the same time last year this week according to the British Berry Growers association.

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Co-op Group to cut 400 jobs at Manchester head office

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The group blamed rising inflation for job losses as it vows to protect shoppers from higher prices

The Co-op Group is cutting 400 jobs at its head office in Manchester as the retailer said it faced tough trading conditions amid rising inflation.

The job cuts come after the Co-op, which employs more than 63,000 people including 4,000 at its head offices, warned in April of continuing problems with food supplies and inflation after its annual profits more than halved amid supply chain disruption and higher staff wages.

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M&S to remove ‘best before’ labels from 300 fruit and veg items to cut food waste

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The change, to be rolled out this week, will leave customers to judge whether goods are still fine to eat

Marks & Spencer is planning to remove “best before” labels from 300 varieties of fruit and vegetables in its stores to cut food waste.

The change, to be rolled out this week, will rely on customers using their judgment to determine whether goods are still fine to eat. The measure will affect 85% of the supermarket’s fresh produce offering.

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Burberry sales fall 35% in China on back of Covid lockdowns

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Lola handbag range and signature trenchcoat give luxury fashion retailer boost elsewhere

Burberry has reported sales growth of only 1% in its latest financial quarter because of the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns in China, while sales were boosted elsewhere by its Lola handbag range and signature trenchcoat.

The luxury fashion retailer said sales fell 35% in mainland China because of restrictions and store closures to contain the latest outbreak of the coronavirus, while sales grew 16% across the rest of the world in the 13 weeks to 2 July.

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Amazon to create more than 4,000 jobs in UK

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US company says recruitment drive will take permanent workforce in Britain to 75,000

Amazon is creating more than 4,000 permanent jobs across the UK this year, the online company has announced.

The US firm said the recruitment drive would bring its permanent workforce in the UK to 75,000, having created 40,000 new jobs in the past three years.

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Asda employees ‘skipping meals’ due to monthly payroll errors

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Thousands of staff have been left up to £500 short on payday, which has forced some to use food banks or leave bills unpaid

Asda employees are having to skip household bill payments, take out loans, and even use food banks to get through the month due to regular payroll errors that have seen some underpaid by £500 or more.

The scale of the problem emerged after the private equity-backed company admitted to members of the Scottish parliament that its external payroll firm had made nearly 11,000 errors in recent months, affecting the wages of 5,500 staff.

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Boohoo starts charging shoppers £1.99 to return items

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Processing of unwanted items has become increasing problem for retailers since Covid online boom

The fast fashion website Boohoo has become the latest online retailer to start charging shoppers to return items.

Boohoo customers will now have to pay £1.99 when they send unwanted goods back, and the cost will be deducted from the amount they are refunded.

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UK retailers hit by sharp drop in spending as inflation soars

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Boost in demand in June on back of jubilee celebrations fails to prevent third successive fall

Britain’s retailers are suffering the sharpest drop in spending since the depths of the coronavirus pandemic as hard-pressed consumers tighten their belts as a result of soaring inflation.

The monthly health check from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported a third successive drop in activity as the cost of living crisis continued to bite.

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UK supermarkets urged to stop selling Parma ham from EU caged sows

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Animal welfare groups find sows in Europe forced to spend weeks in cages so small they can only stand and lie down

Animal welfare campaigners are calling on UK supermarkets to stop selling premium ham, including Parma, produced in “sow stalls” on EU farms.

An undercover investigation conducted by Compassion in World Farming (CWF), an animal welfare campaign group, found that sows are forced to spend many weeks in cages so small they can only stand up and lie down.

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Sainsbury’s boss warns UK living costs squeeze will ‘only intensify’

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UK’s second-biggest supermarket says it will invest £500m to keep prices low as Marks & Spencer echoes outlook for coming months

The inflationary pressure on households will “only intensify” through the rest of this year, the boss of Sainsbury’s has warned as he said the supermarket would invest £500m in attempting to keep prices low.

The dour sentiment was echoed by the chair of Marks & Spencer, Archie Norman, who told shareholders at the retailer’s annual general meeting on Tuesday that there was a “coming winter in consumer demand”.

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UK shop prices hit highest rate of inflation since 2008

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Prices up 3.1% on a year ago, with fresh food prices in particular rising sharply, figures show

Shop prices have hit their highest rate of inflation in almost 14 years as businesses grapple with soaring supply chain costs and a cut in household spending, figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show.

They were up 3.1% on a year ago in June, up from 2.8% in May – the highest rate of inflation since September 2008, according to the BRC-NielsenIQ shop price index.

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Ocado aims to raise £575m from investors to fund tech arm expansion

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Firm wants to ‘invest in innovation at faster pace’ and help clients as online grocery market grows

Ocado is aiming to raise £575m from investors to fund the expansion of its technology arm, which enables overseas retailers to sell groceries online. It has also agreed a new £300m credit facility with a syndicate of international banks.

Ocado said it wanted the cash to “invest in innovation at a faster pace” and help its clients, which include the US supermarket chain Kroger and the French grocer Casino, to accelerate the shift to online shopping.

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Primark to trial UK click and collect in move into online sales

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Customers will be able to order from about 2,000 items online, including children’s clothes

Primark will trial a click-and-collect service in the UK, in the budget fashion chain’s first significant move into online shopping.

The high street retailer will launch the trial at 25 stores in the north-west of England by the end of the year, but said it would only cover children’s clothing and accessories, as the company – owned by Associated British Foods (ABF) – tries to draw more families into its stores.

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Revlon files for bankruptcy in US after supply chain trouble and surging costs

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Cosmetics company hopes to refinance and keep trading, saying demand for products remains strong

Revlon, the 90-year-old multinational beauty company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, weighed down by debt load, disruptions to its supply chain network and surging costs.

The New York-based company said that on court approval, it expects to receive $575m (£469m) in financing from its existing lenders, which will allow it to keep its day-to-day operations running.

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Morrisons mistakenly lists £2.50 whisky

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The retailer identified the pricing error on its website before any bottles were sold

Mark Twain reputedly said “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough”.

Online shoppers at the supermarket Morrisons came close to testing his theory when the retailer accidentally priced bottles of a Scotch whisky at just £2.50, a 93% discount from its usual price of £36.

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UK food price rises could hit 15% over summer, report says

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Ukraine war, China lockdowns and Brexit help push up inflation, with products that rely on wheat worst hit

Food price rises in the UK could hit 15% this summer – the highest level in more than 20 years – with inflation lasting into the middle of next year, according to a report.

Meat, cereals, dairy, fruit and vegetables are likely to be the worst affected as the war in Ukraine combines with production lockdowns in China and export bans on key food stuffs such as palm oil from Indonesia and wheat from India, the grocery trade body IGD warns.

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Missguided will not refund customers, administrators confirm

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Shoppers air frustration at UK fast-fashion retailer’s failure to honour refunds after falling into insolvency

Customers of the collapsed fast fashion retailer Missguided will not receive refunds for returns, administrators of the business have confirmed.

It comes after the Manchester-based company fell into insolvency last month after racking up millions of pounds in outstanding payments to creditors.

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