Ocado offers £500m in bonds after Aeon warehouse deal December 2, 2019 Online grocer Ocado today announced a £500m bond issue as it seeks cash to fund tech arm Ocado Solutions’ commitments. The company said that the guaranteed senior unsecured convertible bonds, due 2025, are expected to carry a coupon of between 0.75 per cent and 1.25 per cent a year. Read more: Ocado shares soar on [...]
Cat Rock says Prosus will have to raise Just Eat bid to 925p per share December 2, 2019 Activist investor Cat Rock has said it will throw its weight behind Just Eat’s Takeaway.com merger unless Prosus raises its offer to 925p per share. The Dutch food delivery firm has had a £5bn bid accepted for Just Eat but tech group Prosus has come in with a rival 710p per share offer. Read more: [...]
Black Friday spending has beaten 2018’s outlay, says Barclaycard November 29, 2019 Black Friday spending has risen 12.5 per cent on 2018’s total, Barclaycard said today. Spending was higher as of 10am this morning and “sustained” that high level throughout the day. The bank said the number of transactions then reached a “new peak” between 1pm and 2pm on Black Friday. Read more: Black Friday outages: Natwest [...]
Black Friday backlash: Amazon and GMB dispute protest numbers at UK warehouses November 29, 2019 Staff at Amazon warehouses are staging walkouts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in a row over the “appalling” treatment of workers. The demonstrations are taking place today and on Monday at Amazon’s head office in Shoreditch, as well as seven other locations across the UK, the GMB union said, and involve “100, if not [...]
Flight Club founders unveil new shuffleboard venue in Canary Wharf November 29, 2019 The founders of popular darts bar Flight Club today unveiled a brand new venue promising a fresh take on the traditional pub game shuffleboard. Electric Shuffle has now opened in Canary Wharf, allowing after-work boozers to dabble in some competitive socialising. Read more: Crazy golf club Swingers tees up multimillion pound investment as it tees [...]
Ocado shares soar on Japanese robot warehouse deal with Aeon November 29, 2019 Shares in online retailer Ocado jumped more than 11 per cent today after it announced a deal to help Japanese retailer Aeon launch a new online business. Ocado uses robot technology in its customer fulfilment centres (CFCs) to automate many processes. Read more: Ocado to build sixth warehouse as online grocer accelerates growth It said [...]
Inside Amazon’s Black Friday operations hub: How the e-commerce giant prepares for its busiest day of the year November 29, 2019 Where could be a better place to witness the behind-the-scenes impact of Black Friday than at the heart of Amazon’s UK warehouse operations? Some of the credit – or perhaps, blame – for the annual shopping event’s popularity in Britain surely lies with the US e-commerce giant. The fulfilment centre – which is the size [...]
UK consumer confidence is at its lowest point since 2013 ahead of General Election November 29, 2019 Consumer confidence was flat this month as the UK waits for the outcome of the upcoming General Election and for the new government’s Brexit plan to become clear. The overall index score for consumer confidence this month was minus 14, according to the latest data from GfK. This is the same score as was recorded in [...]
Asian expansion boosts Fortnum & Mason sales growth November 29, 2019 London luxury food retailer Fortnum & Mason has reported double-digit sales growth in its full-year results, boosted by the company’s global expansion. Sales across the business increased 12 per cent to £138m, while profits soared 26 per cent, driven by growth in Hong Kong and Japan where sales grew 16 and 28 per cent respectively. [...]
Napoleonic cellars and Peaky Blinders: How the old merchants of St James’s Street are fighting to stay relevant November 28, 2019 Reserved, polite and unashamedly old-fashioned, the shop-owners of St James’s Street do not offer many similarities with the brash retail bosses we so often see in the news. Unlike Mike Ashley or Sir Philip Green, they are not waging takeover wars or stirring up corporate controversies. They are cautious in their ambitions, and conservative in their tastes. But just [...]