Iceland boss Malcolm Walker: Which? supercomplaint over supermarket offers was “b*****ks” July 17, 2015 Iceland boss Malcolm Walker – the supermarket sector's answer to Michael O'Leary – has blasted the Which? supercomplaint over misleading deals as “bollocks”. The consumer group took a petition signed by more than 100,000 to the Competition and Markets Authority earlier this year, claiming it had found examples of “dodgy special offers” that led [...]
Amazon Prime Day is not the new Black Friday as British retailers have little appetite for mega sales… yet July 15, 2015 Not content with helping bring the horror of shoppingeddon to the UK in the form of Black Friday, Amazon is now attempting to create its own, even bigger version, with Prime Day. Last year Black Friday went from being a US tradition us Brits mocked as the embodiment of America's tendency to take things to [...]
Dixons Carphone boss Sebastian James steals Retail Week Power List crown from Next’s Simon Wolfson June 26, 2015 Dixons Carphone chief executive Sebastian James has been crowned the most powerful person in British retailing, knocking Next's Simon Wolfson off the top spot. James has stolen the number one position in Retail Week's annual Power List, published today, for his work successfully merging the two retailers, creating a £10bn business that swooped into [...]
MRSA superbug found in pork sold by Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Co-operative June 18, 2015 Pork sold by four major UK supermarkets has tested positive for MRSA CC398 – a variant of the superbug, which can cause skin disorders and serious infections in humans. Products from Sainsbury's, Tesco, the Co-operative and Asda all tested positive for the bacteria during an investigation carried out by The Guardian. Read more: Sainsbury's, [...]
Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Asda recall “gluten free” products over fears they contain gluten June 7, 2015 Three of the UK's biggest supermarkets are warning customers the “gluten-free” products they bought may contain gluten. Asda, Sainsbury's and Waitrose have all issued statements recalling certain products branded as gluten-free, ranging from pitta breads to pizza bases and pancakes. On its website, Asda said: It has been brought to our attention [...]
As UK enters deflation, Asda boss Andy Clarke calls 2015 supermarkets’ “most challenging year yet” May 19, 2015 On the day the UK was pushed into deflation for the first time since 1962 by a dive in food prices, Asda chief executive Andy Clarke has called 2015 the "most challenging year" of the recovery for supermarkets. Read more: Analysts say deflation will not be here to stay In the supermarket's first quarter results statement [...]
Record grocery deflation hurts sales at Tesco, Asda and Morrisons and Sainsbury’s May 6, 2015 All four of Britain’s major supermarkets saw sales fall over the last 12 weeks, while the discounters continued to slow, as grocery price deflation reached another record low, figures released yesterday show. Sainsbury’s was the strongest performer among the big four despite a 0.2 per cent fall in sales thanks to its increased focus on [...]
Aldi and Lidl expansion plans speed ahead of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda in supermarket wars with five times as many planning applications May 5, 2015 Rival German discounters continue to outpace the UK's "big four" in the supermarket wars with ambitious plans for expansion five times the rate of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, and Asda combined. While Tesco and Morrisons have been forced to shutter stores in the midst of declining sales and squeezed margins, Aldi and Lidl have submitted plans [...]
Grocery price war continues: Tesco’s rebound hurts Asda as Aldi reaches record market share March 10, 2015 Tesco's return to growth is stealing market share from Asda, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel. The sector as a whole is still hugely competitive: the grocery price war has driven supermarket deflation to a record level of 1.6 per cent for the 12 weeks to March 1. Kantar estimated that this had [...]
Asda sales drop as boss Andy Clarke admits “pace and scale of change exceeded expectations” February 19, 2015 The boss of Asda has warned that the retail sector is in “one of its most challenging and changeable periods in history” as the supermarket today posted a drop in sales in 2014. The figures Like-for-likes at Wal-mart owned Asda dropped one per cent in the 12 months to December 31, while fourth quarter figures [...]