Marks and Spencer results will reflect the high street’s health November 4, 2018 Results from Marks and Spencer’s clothing range – long the weaker twin to its strong food offering – will be closely watched when the retailer reports on Wednesday, after difficult results for several of its rivals. Consensus estimates from 11 analysts suggest the FTSE 100 firm will post half-year profits before tax of £203m, a [...]
Ranked: Sports Direct tops poll of UK’s most loathed brands October 23, 2018 House of Fraser owner Sports Direct is the UK’s most loathed brand, according to consumer finance website Money Saving Expert. However, billionaire Mike Ashley's bottom-placed retail giant may have been hurt by a social media campaign against the company, admitted the website, which asked 7,600 readers to rank 52 household name brands. Read more: Mike [...]
Asda and Sainsbury’s mega merger could hit Aldi and Lidl’s trollies October 17, 2018 Britain’s store wars are intensifying by the day but the force is still strong with German discounters Aldi and Lidl. The price-cutters continued to steal market share from the Big Four supermarkets in the 12 weeks to 7 October, figures from the closely-watched Kantar Worldpanel report showed yesterday. Aldi’s sales growth, its fastest since January [...]
Shopping spree: Aldi and Lidl gain market share at expense of big three supermarkets October 16, 2018 The UK's biggest supermarkets lost ground to their budget rivals in the three months into the start of October, as the return of chilly weather marked the end of a bumper summer of growth. Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda all lost market share to Aldi and Lidl, with Tesco shedding 0.6 percentage points and Sainsbury's losing 0.4 percentage points [...]
Tesco share price falls despite taking the fight to supermarket rivals with rising revenues October 3, 2018 Tesco aimed to cement its status as the UK’s largest supermarket today with rising revenue and operating margins as it fights off competition from merging rivals and cheaper competitors. However, shares fell more than seven per cent in morning trading as the retailer missed a key profit metric. The figures The retail giant posted a 13 [...]
Store wars: Aldi is in no mood to be Jack’s of all trades October 2, 2018 Aldi vowed to make Tesco discounter brand Jack’s a dull boy yesterday, saying it will remain the UK’s cheapest grocer. “It will be a real struggle for any more complex supermarket to successfully imitate our model let alone replicate it,” Giles Hurley, chief exec of Aldi UK and Ireland, said as he threw down the [...]
Aldi may drop prices to compete with Tesco’s new budget venture Jack’s October 1, 2018 Low-cost supermarket chain Aldi "will never be beaten on price", and could even drop them in response to Tesco's new low-cost venture Jack's, it said today. UK and Ireland chief executive Giles Hurley said Aldi welcomes competition from new players such as Jack's, adding: "If we need to reduce retail prices we will." Read more: Drastic Dave's no-frills move must [...]
Aldi to expand into 130 new stores as sales rocket to £10.2bn October 1, 2018 German supermarket giant Aldi today announced major plans to open 130 new stores in the UK on the back of impressive sales growth last year. The expansion will create 5,000 new jobs in the UK, Aldi says, and is a big step on the way to the firm reaching its target of setting up 1,000 stores [...]
Bumper summer and Booker buyout set to boost Tesco profits September 30, 2018 Tesco will be hoping to post strong first-half profits on Wednesday, as a blistering summer heatwave, successful World Cup run and a royal wedding are all likely to have boosted the firm’s performance. Consensus estimates compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence show that earnings before tax (excluding exceptions) could hit £795m in the first six [...]
Aldi and Lidl continue to attract customers – so what impact will Tesco’s budget chain Jack’s have? September 26, 2018 Recently Tesco unveiled its first Jack’s discount store. With a strong emphasis on Britishness and home-grown products, the brand is seen as a challenger to the German supermarkets, Aldi and Lidl. I have often talked in this column about the growth of both Aldi and Lidl, and YouGov BrandIndex data points to the continued improvements [...]