Ocado: Shares slump as double-digit growth fails to offset losses February 27, 2025 Tech and grocery platform Ocado has reported another year of losses despite a strong performance in its online delivery arm. Its share price fell by more than 13 per cent in early trades. Overall revenue rose by 14.1 per cent to reach £3.1bn in the year ended December 1. Lucy Rumbold, equity research analyst at [...]
Tesco considers franchise of axed Post Office branches February 6, 2025 Tesco has shown an interest in acquiring a number of axed Post Office branches as part of a franchise model, according to reports. Post Office chairman Nigel Railton told a group of MPs earlier this week that the UK’s biggest grocer had expressed interest in the 108-site Crown Post Office network, according to Sky News. [...]
Grocery inflation slowed as supermarket discounts deepened February 4, 2025 Grocery inflation in January slowed for the first time in six months after supermarkets lowered prices in response to stretched household budgets. Inflation was 3.3 per cent in January, easing from 3.7 per cent in December, according to the latest figures from Kantar. Prices rose for chocolate, juices and butters, but fell for cooking sauces, [...]
Tesco to cut 400 jobs as it moves to ‘more efficient’ working January 29, 2025 Tesco has announced plans to cut more than 400 jobs in a bid to improve efficiency at the grocer, following in the footsteps of Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons. The supermarket giant said that the “more competitive than ever” market means it must “work hard… to offer our customers unrivalled value”. “This means always being open [...]
Ocado shares surge after online grocer reports record-breaking year January 14, 2025 Ocado Retail’s sales boomed in the weeks leading up to Christmas, vastly outperforming the broader market with double-digit revenue and customer growth. In a trading update issued today, the company, a 50:50 joint venture between Ocado and Marks and Spencer, reported revenue growth of 17.5 per cent in the 13 weeks to 1 December. Ocado [...]
Tesco Clubcard and Sainbury’s Nectar schemes do help consumers, regulator says November 27, 2024 A year-long probe into UK supermarkets’ pricing practices has found “very little” evidence that shoppers are being treated unfairly with loyalty programmes such as the Tesco Clubcard scheme and Sainsbury’s Nectar points. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) probe, which has been ongoing since November last year, investigated whether supermarket loyalty schemes cause inflation by faking the [...]
Struggles continue at Asda as new owner looks to turn around supermarket giant November 12, 2024 The continuing struggles at supermarket giant Asda have been revealed with both Tesco and Sainsbury’s hoovering up its market share in the UK, according to new figures. Sales at the Leeds-based grocer totalled £4.242bn in the 12 weeks to 3 November, 2024, down from the £4.490bn it reported for the same period last year, the [...]
Sainsbury’s: FTSE 100 retailer warns Reeves’ budget may push up food prices November 7, 2024 Chief executive of Sainsbury’s Simon Roberts has warned that Reeves’ decision to increase employer’s national insurance contributions (NICs) by 1.2 per cent to 15 per cent next April could lead to price inflation. Sainsbury’s has estimated the cost of the change at £140m, according to the Guardian. “This industry operates on very low margins, and there just [...]
Asda cuts jobs and demands three-days-a-week return to office November 6, 2024 Asda has announced job cuts and asked its staff to return to the office three days a week in the latest move in its turnaround plan. In an internal email on 5 November, the grocer said it was changing its office attendance policy at its George House site in Leicester as well as its Asda [...]
Marks and Spencer shares up on double-digit growth as turnaround pays off November 6, 2024 Marks and Spencer has reported another bumper set of results ahead of the golden quarter as its turnaround plan continues to pay off. The company’s share price rose by nearly five per cent in early trades and reached a level not seen since 2016. Profit before tax rose 17.2 per cent to £407.8m, up £348.1m [...]