Tesco and Carrefour to trial refillable container scheme in bid to cut waste January 24, 2019 Supermarket giants Tesco and Carrefour are set to trial a refillable container scheme in a bid to cut waste created by excess packaging and single-use containers. The French and British retailers have teamed up with a coalition of major consumer product companies to pilot a new service to provide online shoppers with refillable containers. Read [...]
British competition watchdog raises ‘serious concerns’ over Viagogo order January 24, 2019 Britain’s competition watchdog has said today it has “serious concerns” that Viagogo has not complied with a court order that forced the controversial ticket reseller to “overhaul” the way it does business. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) added that it “expects them to make any necessary changes without delay”, with Viagogo ordered to make immediate [...]
Real estate merger to form biggest ever UK healthcare property investor January 24, 2019 Real estate group Primary Health Properties (PHP) has agreed a £1bn merger deal with MedicX in a move that is set to create the UK’s largest ever UK healthcare property investor. In an effort to scale up its role within the healthcare asset market, FTSE 250 primary care specialist PHP has signed an all-share merger with [...]
Fevertree sales fizz as tonic maker cheers bumper summer January 24, 2019 FeverTree’s share price jumped more than eight per cent in early morning trading, after the tonic maker said it was forecasting a sharp uptick in revenues following strong consumer appetite in the UK. Prolonged summer weather and festive demand drove up sales last year, according to the group, which said today that it expected revenue [...]
Like-for-like sales slip at The Restaurant Group despite Wagamama boost after ‘pivotal year’ January 24, 2019 Frankie & Benny’s owner The Restaurant Group (TRG) posted a dip in like-for-like sales during 2018, but said that it has been seeing positive growth since the World Cup as its pubs continued to outperform the sector. The group also remained upbeat on its recent £500m acquisition of Wagamama, saying that the noodle chain "continued to trade well over [...]
70,000 retail jobs lost in 2018, says trade body BRC January 24, 2019 Panic over further troubles on the high street has been underlined this morning, with new figures showing that some 70,000 retail jobs were lost last year. A retail employment monitor out today from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has found that the total number of jobs was down 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of [...]
English gin makers toast boom in sales as spirits reach record high January 24, 2019 Surging demand for gin has led to a boom in England’s alcohol industry, which registered more distilleries than Scotland last year for the first time ever. Figures in the alcohol industry are hailing a “ginaissance” with sales of the juniper-flavoured spirit in the UK hitting an all-time high in 2018, as London gin bars and [...]
Sir Philip Green accuses Telegraph of colluding with Lord Hain in his naming in harassment story and bids to uncovers its sources January 23, 2019 Retail mogul Sir Philip Green is set for a court battle with the Daily Telegraph in an attempt to uncover the newspaper’s sources for its front page story alleging harassment by an unnamed businessman. Arcadia’s lawyers were granted an interim injunction preventing the naming of Green and Arcadia as the subjects of the piece. However, [...]
SFO publishes terms of deferred prosecution agreement with Tesco after reporting restrictions lifted January 23, 2019 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has published the full terms of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) it agreed with Tesco following the 2014 accounting scandal. Reporting restrictions around the DPA – a voluntary agreement which allows companies to forego prosecution by fulfilling certain requirements – were lifted when former Tesco director Carl Rogberg was acquitted today. [...]
John Lewis to close historic Knight & Lee department store in Southsea January 23, 2019 John Lewis today said it is shutting its historic Knight & Lee department store in Southsea in the chain’s first closure for more than a decade. The department store said it will close Knight & Lee, which at 35,000 square feet (sq ft) is its smallest outlet, in July this year. Read more: John Lewis enjoys [...]