Card Factory chief Karen Hubbard steps down after four years June 26, 2020 Card Factory has announced its chief executive Karen Hubbard will step down at the end of the month after four years at the helm. The retailer said non-executive chairman Paul Moody would take on an executive chair role until it names a new boss. Card Factory said that as it looks forward to the execution [...]
H&M losses worsen as pandemic hurts sales June 26, 2020 Losses at H&M were slightly worse than expected in the second quarter as shopper activity slumped amid the coronavirus pandemic. The world’s second biggest fashion retailer said its loss before tax in the three months to May was 6.48bn Swedish crowns (£559.4m), against a profit of 5.93bn crowns a year earlier. Analysts had on average [...]
Tesco sales bounce amid lockdown spending spree June 26, 2020 Tesco said its sales for the first quarter rose almost nine per cent in the UK, as shoppers stocked up on essentials and hunkered down during the pandemic. Underlying sales in the UK rose 8.7 per cent in the 13 weeks to the end of May, reaching £9.9bn. It maintained its outlook on profit, saying [...]
Ebay calls for government funding to help charities innovate during pandemic June 26, 2020 Ebay’s UK arm has put pressure on the government to do more to help charities during the coronavirus pandemic by establishing an innovation fund to support online retail and services. The e-commerce giant is part of a coalition behind the initiative, which also includes Barnardo’s, the Charity Retail Association and New Philanthropy Capital. The fund [...]
Retailers pay less than 15 per cent of rent for June quarter as property crisis deepens June 25, 2020 Britain’s retailers paid just 13.8 per cent of their rent for the last quarter, in a sign of how hard the coronavirus pandemic has hit the sector. Rent receipts on 24 June, the day commercial tenants’ payments were due for the quarter, were even lower than those three months ago, according to commercial property management [...]
Young’s pub chain taps investors for £88m ahead of pubs reopening June 25, 2020 Young’s pub chain has raised more than £88m from its investors via a share placing ahead of the reopening of pubs from next week. The firm said it had placed a total of 4,263,453 placing shares at 1,160p per share and 4.9m non-voting shares at 735p per share to raise £85.5m. Young’s also raised a [...]
N Brown shares drop as profit falls on ‘year of restructuring’ June 25, 2020 Fashion retailer N Brown has today posted falls in both profit and revenue for the last financial year, blaming the drop on a lengthy period of “restructuring” the business. In the 12 months to 29 February 2020, the owner of the Simply Be and Jacamo brands said adjusted profit before tax fell 28.8 per cent [...]
CMA clears Amazon’s £442m Deliveroo stake despite delivery firm’s coronavirus turnaround June 24, 2020 Britain’s competition watchdog has provisionally cleared Amazon’s £442m investment in Deliveroo, saying that it is “not likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition”. The Competition and Markets Authority has been looking into whether the deal would damage competition in either restaurant delivery or online convenience grocery delivery. The decision to let the investment [...]
Data breach fears raised over test and trace pubs register June 24, 2020 Cyber security experts have raised privacy fears over the potential for data breaches in the government’s plan to make pubs and restaurants keep a register of all visitors. Under new rules laid out yesterday, all hospitality venues must keep a guest register to record the contact details of visitors for 21 days to help track [...]
Rent day: Landlords braced for as little as one-sixth of quarterly payments June 24, 2020 Commercial property owners are braced to receive as little as 15 per cent of the rent they are owed today, with quarterly payments due by the end of today. Experts have warned of an impending crisis on both the landlord and tenant side without further government support, with businesses across the spectrum unable to pay [...]