Applegreen goes private as founders and Blackstone tie up £653m deal December 22, 2020 Irish petrol station and roadside convenience operator Applegreen has agreed to a bid from a consortium led by investment company Blackstone. The deal values the firm at 718.1m euro, a premium of around 48 per cent on the firm’s share price on the day of the bid. The buyout will see the firm go private. [...]
Sofa so good at DFS with sales up 19 per cent in six months December 22, 2020 Gross sales at DFS Furniture increased 19 per cent against the comparable 24-week period ending 15 December 2019, despite disruption caused by Covid-19. The furniture business’s online channel in particular grew in the 24 weeks to 13 December, with gross sales up 76 per cent on the same period last year. DFS believes it has [...]
Wanted: A minister for hospitality December 22, 2020 The hospitality industry — which provided work to more than 3.2m people before the pandemic struck — has been hit harder than virtually any other sector by Covid-19. But while the latest ONS figures show that a staggering 78 per cent of businesses in the accommodation and food services industry have been impacted, there is [...]
D&D owner: Tax supermarkets to bail out bars and restaurants December 21, 2020 In his second City A.M. column, D&D London CEO and cofounder Des Gunewardena reflects on the “horror show” of the last week, asks the government to consider a Covid-tax to help struggling restaurants, and offers his empty venues up as Covid vaccination stations. We have had some bad weeks during this pandemic, but last week [...]
Coronavirus helps Deliveroo take home profits in 2020 December 21, 2020 Deliveroo has recorded profits for six months in 2020, with coronavirus helping the business turn the tide on last year’s losses. The last 12 months have marked a year of growth for the food delivery app, following a couple of years of investment that saw losses at the business run into the hundreds of millions. [...]
Retailers feel Tier 4 pain as footfall drops 40 per cent December 21, 2020 Retail footfall plunged by 40 per cent in the areas of England put under Tier 4 restrictions such as London, laying bare the impact of the restrictions on shop-owners during the crucial Christmas period. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced London and parts of the south and south east of England would go into [...]
Sainsbury’s warns of gaps on shelves if Dover chaos is not sorted December 21, 2020 Sainsbury’s has warned that gaps will start to appear on shelves within days if transport ties are not quickly restored with mainland Europe. The transport of freight across the English Channel has been disrupted after France suspended travel links with Britain yesterday to try to curb a new faster spreading strain of Covid-19. The supermarket [...]
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group withdraws income guidance on Tier 4 news December 21, 2020 Frasers Group has withdrawn its published guidance of a 20 per cent to 30 per cent underling improvement in EBITDA in the wake of the latest coronavirus restrictions. Due to the closure of almost all stores in London and the southeast during the year’s peak retail trading period, Frasers Group said it was withdrawing the [...]
Boohoo appoints new auditor following factory working conditions scandal December 21, 2020 Boohoo has appointed PKF Littlejohn as its auditor, after PwC quit earlier this year in the wake of allegations of poor factory conditions in the fashion group’s supply chain in Leicester. Deloitte, KPMG, BDO and Grant Thornton each ruled themselves out of the race to replace PwC, with PKF ultimately winning the bid. PKF will [...]
Arcadia empire begins to splinter as Aussies pick off Evans December 21, 2020 City Chic Collective, an Australian retail company, has picked up the Evans brand from stricken high street giant Arcadia. The antipodean firm has brought Evans’ brand and wholesale business, though UK stores are not part of the deal. The deal is thought to be worth around £23m. Read more: Where did it all go wrong [...]