Will the public miss WH Smith if it disappears from the UK high street? YouGov’s chief executive Steve Hatch takes a closer look at the data behind the biggest stories in business. Here, he looks at the future of WH Smith. News broke last week that WH Smith was looking to sell its UK high street stores. The company told the London Stock Exchange that it intended to become [...]
UK economy: Does Labour’s economic hotchpotchism matter? Economics Although gilt jitters have eased, the embattled Chancellor now faces a new and far more serious criticism.
Square Mile and Me: Natasha Guerra on setting up Runway East Opinion Runway East CEO Natasha Guerra tells us about her career, her favourite cocktail spot, and why she'd like to see fewer blue shirts in the City.
Why Dame Sharon White failed at John Lewis and what her successor needs to do October 4, 2023 The current chair of John Lewis was always a risky appointment, Simon Neville writes, but she made mistakes that her successor would do well to learn from as they seek to restore the retailer to relevance
Mark Kleinman: The inquest into Wilko’s demise has only just begun September 14, 2023 Mark Kleinman is City editor at Sky News Inquest into Wilko’s demise has only just begun Few things elicit British consumers’ sentimentality like the imminent disappearance of a once-proud high street name. For Woolworths in 2009 and BHS in 2016, read Wilko in 2023. The sad fate of more than 10,000 employees at the family-owned [...]
Mark Kleinman: Wilko’s demise, the FTSE chair merry-go-round and Bink’s breakup with Barclays September 14, 2023 Mark Kleinman gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly column for City A.M.
RIP Wilko: How another high street chain went to the wall September 11, 2023 After more than 90 years on the high street, Wilko and all its 400 stores will vanish by early October. Its 12,500 staff were hoping that HMV owner Doug Putman would be able to close a rescue deal that would see several hundred stores saved. But the Canadian entrepreneur abandoned talks with the high street [...]
Wilko may look like Woolies 2.0, but a new buyer should save it from collapse August 11, 2023 Wilco’s collapse into administration put tens of thousands of jobs at risk, but the high street staple should have a future if a buyer sees beyond the hysteria, writes George MacDonald.
Analysis: Wilko collapse is the Woolworths of this financial crisis August 10, 2023 The collapse of Woolworths was described as “the first domino of physical retail Armageddon.” Although it might not justify that epithet, the collapse of Wilko shows which way the wind is now blowing.
The fate of John Lewis vs Debenhams is a parable in how to adapt to the future December 7, 2022 Emerging technologies, from AI and machine learning to edge computing and the metaverse, are fundamentally revolutionising how data is captured and used by businesses in the UK. The effective application of this data can have a transformational effect on the performance of an organisation. In the UK, we’ve had clear examples of this working to [...]