HomeServe founder pours £110m in crusade to revive flailing British high street August 20, 2023 HomeServe founder Richard Harpin is injecting £110m of his own cash into medium-sized businesses, aiming to breathe life back into the UK’s beleaguered high streets. After cashing in on the sale of insurance company HomeServe to Brookfield last year for a cool £4.1bn, the home repairs mogul Harpin said he is trying to “help others [...]
Wilko on brink of collapse with 12,000 jobs at risk August 3, 2023 Troubled homeware and garden retailer Wilko reportedly intends to call in administrators, placing 12,000 jobs at risk. The high street chain has filed its notice to appoint administrators at the High Court, Bloomeberg first reported, after it spent the summer hunting for a rescue deal. Wilko, which has 400 sites across the UK, has struggled [...]
Digital stores predicted to appear on the high street as automation threatens retail jobs June 19, 2023 Large e-commerce stores are likely to crop up as physical stores across the UK high street in the next five to ten years, according to predictions aided by AI. Money saving website Savoo used AI to visualise the future of the British high street and it suggested more than 11,000 chain stores would disappear by [...]
Brits splash cash at the weekend as number of high street shoppers up 6.8 per cent – but it’s STILL below pre-Covid levels April 7, 2023 Weekend shoppers have driven a rise in high street customers, but numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels according to a UK retail group. The total number of shoppers rose by 6.8 per cent in March, according to the latest data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Weekends saw a 9.7 per cent rise on the previous [...]
UK retail sales’ sluggish new year start as cash-strapped Brits go online to nab deals February 17, 2023 UK retail sales remained muted in January following December’s fall, with fuel sales spiking and prices continuing to plummet. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the figures which showed retail sales volumes increased by just half a per cent last month. This comes after it dipped by 1.2 per cent in December, despite the [...]
High Street retail race: Marks and Spencer predicted to overtake John Lewis by 2026 February 8, 2023 Marks & Spencer will overtake John Lewis in the rankings of the UK’s biggest retailers by 2026, according to a new sales forecast. Tesco will retain its position as the largest retailer, followed by Sainsbury’s, but Amazon is on track to move into the top three within the next few years, industry title Retail Week [...]
The High Street in 2023: Full of tech and hyper-local but still with 17th century touches December 28, 2022 In order to save the Great British high street of the 21st century in 2023, one may need to go back in time and take inspiration from the 17th century. Far from the vision of a super futuristic, tech-heavy world, a desire for face-to-face contact and micro communities, which has been accelerated by the pandemic, will drive [...]
Political and economic uncertainty pushes retail footfall down by 2.3 per cent October 24, 2022 Political uncertainty and economic instability contributed to a dip in retail footfall, with high streets being hit the hardest. Across the UK as a whole, there was a marked decline in footfall for retailers by 2.3 per cent last week, New figures from Springboard show. The data shows in the three retail sectors, high streets, [...]
High street firms face ‘battle’ to recruit staff after labour pool shrinks October 18, 2022 High street businesses are facing a “battle” to recruit staff against the backdrop of a shrinking workforce, with many workers having left the country or unable to work due to sickness. Industry chiefs lamented the vacancy crisis facing businesses ranging from retailers to restaurants to care homes at a committee meeting of the economic affairs [...]
Former Boots exec in talks to join oligarch linked investment fund LetterOne September 26, 2022 A former executive at the firm that owns Boots is in talks to join the board of Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman’s Luxembourg headquartered investment vehicle LetterOne. Former Walgreen Boots Alliance co-COO Alex Gourlay is in advanced talks to become a non-executive director at LetterOne after stepping down from the pharmacy owner earlier this year, [...]