Fashion retailer Joules forecasts £18m revenue hit due to new lockdown restrictions January 7, 2021 British fashion retailer Joules has forecast a revenue hit of up to £18m due to the current Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in the UK, the firm said as it announced a sharp drop in store sales over the winter. Joules said total store sales declined 58 per cent in the seven weeks to 3 January due [...]
MPs urge Rishi Sunak to save music festivals amid threat of collapse January 7, 2021 MPs have urged chancellor Rishi Sunak to roll out emergency support for music festivals this summer, warning many events are at risk of permanent collapse. In a letter today the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee asked the chancellor to launch a government-backed insurance scheme to ensure festivals and live music events [...]
Ladbrokes owner makes £250m bid for Enlabs after shunning MGM January 7, 2021 The owner of British betting firm Ladbrokes has made a £250m takeover bid for Swedish rival Enlabs, just days after rejecting an £8bn approach from MGM. Entain today said it is offering 40 Swedish krona for each share of Enlabs, which specialises in sports betting. This values the company at roughly 2.8bn krona (£250m), marking [...]
Toby Carvery owner Mitchells & Butlers explores equity raise due to third lockdown January 7, 2021 Mitchells & Butlers, which owns Toby Carvery, All Bar One and Nicholson’s, is exploring a potential equity raise due to the potential for further disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The pub chain, which last year axed 1,300 jobs due to the pandemic, said it is not possible to estimate the impact of further Covid-19 [...]
Discounter B&M sees impressive revenue growth amid Covid crisis January 7, 2021 Discount retailer B&M said this morning that it had seen impressive revenue growth in the third quarter despite the coronavirus pandemic. Group revenue increased 22.5 per cent to £1.4bn, up from £1.1bn in the same period last year. The firm said that the combination of its low prices and out-of-town stores had proved attractive to [...]
Puregym offers its sites as coronavirus vaccination centres January 6, 2021 Puregym is offering the use of hundreds of its closed sites as vaccination centres in the UK as the government rushes to administer jabs amid a surge in cases. Speaking on BBC Question Time, chief executive Humphrey Cobbold said: “I’ve got 270 sites around the country of gyms… I’ve got three and a half thousand [...]
Greggs expects £15m full-year loss as coronavirus restrictions bite January 6, 2021 Greggs will swing to a full-year loss of up to £15m due to the impact of coronavirus lockdowns on trading, the high street bakery chain announced this morning. The company, which has cut 820 jobs due to the crisis, said the drop in demand means it expects to report a loss before tax for 2020 [...]
UK supermarkets secure best Christmas on record as online sales double January 6, 2021 Online share of UK grocery sales doubled in December, helping to drive supermarkets to their biggest Christmas on record. A total of 8.5m households shopped for their Christmas groceries online this year, up almost 3m compared to last year and equating to roughly a third of all UK households. This pushed total spend at UK [...]
Retailers slash prices in December to tempt shoppers after bruising year January 6, 2021 Retailers slashed prices in December to tempt shoppers to spend in the run-up to Christmas following a challenging year for the beleaguered UK high street. Shop prices fell 1.8 per cent last month – the same rate of decline as in November – driven by discounting among the firms hit hardest by the pandemic, such [...]
Coronavirus lockdown: Government announces £4bn in grants for closed retail and hospitality firms January 5, 2021 Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses are set to receive a one-off grant of up to £9,000 per property to help them survive the latest coronavirus lockdown, the government announced this morning. The new funding comes after the Prime Minister announced last night that the sectors would be forced to remain closed until at least mid-February [...]