By: Felix Armstrong

Retail Reporter Felix Armstrong is City AM's retail reporter, covering retail, hospitality and property news. He has previously written for The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The i Paper. Email Felix at Felix.Armstrong@cityam.com

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Mike Ashley’s Frasers faces shareholder revolt over exec bonus

September 15, 2026

Frasers Group, the retail empire owned by Mike Ashley, is facing an investor revolt over a bonus handed to its finance chief for “doing his job”. Two influential shareholder proxies have urged the firm’s investors to slap down its executives’ pay package at its annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday. The dispute centres around a [...]
Healey urged to drop ‘death tax’ holding back family businesses

September 14, 2026

John Healey has been urged to drop a so-called “death tax” which business leaders say means family firms are losing out to overseas investors. The Chancellor has been told to unwind sweeping reforms to inheritance tax, made by his predecessor Rachel Reeves, which family businesses say undermine the government’s attempts to drive economic growth through [...]
500m bricks ‘just sitting there’ as 1.5m homes target looms

September 14, 2026

There are half a billion bricks lying unused in Britain, it has been revealed, piling fresh pressure on the government’s “stretch target” of building 1.5m homes by the next election. As many as 500,000,000 bricks – enough to build 50,000 homes – are “just sitting there” in factory yards across the country, the GMB Union [...]
Battersea Power Station enters final ‘playful’ phase of £5bn project

September 14, 2026

Battersea Power Station has entered the final phase of its £5bn regeneration project after its Malaysian owners submitted plans for the site’s remaining 16 acres. The neighbourhood’s newest development will add as much as 3.2m sq ft of residential, commercial and leisure space to the area, more than 15 years on from the original plans [...]
Mike Ashley’s Frasers ousts Hugo Boss chairman

September 14, 2026

Frasers Group, the retail empire run by Mike Ashley, has overthrown the chairman of Hugo Boss as it seeks control of the German fashion house. The UK fashion group, which owns Sports Direct, Jack Wills and Flannels, told investors on Monday that Stephan Sturm, chairman of Hugo Boss’ supervisory board, has agreed to step aside. [...]
How Fevertree is taking on tap water to woo Gen-Z

September 13, 2026

The world’s biggest ginger beer producer is waging war on tap water. Fevertree, best known for its premium tonics, is urging customers to see its products as standalone soft drinks, rather than as mixers for the harder stuff. “Tap water is not a very appealing, aspirational alternative” to alcohol, says the drinks maker’s chief executive, [...]
Wetherspoon boss: ‘Not up to Burnham’ to choose who is on the high street

September 11, 2026

Britain’s pubs have few more committed defenders than Sir Tim Martin. The Norwich-born businessman founded JD Wetherspoon in 1979 when he bought his first pub in Muswell Hill, initially named Martin’s Free House. Since rebranding the pub to Wetherspoon – named after a former teacher of Martin’s who could not control his class – it [...]
Four interest rate hikes loom despite surprise economic growth

September 11, 2026

The Bank of England is expected to hike interest rates as many as four times within the next year, City figures have said, after the economy delivered surprise growth in July. The central bank is expected to be buoyed by this morning’s GDP figures, which saw the UK economy grow by 0.4 per cent in [...]
Stamp duty reform is ‘urgent,’ Berkeley tells Burnham

September 11, 2026

Berkeley has urged Andy Burnham to commit to “urgent reform” to stamp duty, which it says has become a “binding constraint” on housebuilders and buyers. The FTSE 250 firm said that stamp duty is to blame for the slump in demand for new homes, because it makes first-time-buying unaffordable and dissuades existing homeowners from moving [...]
Trainline hits out at tube strikes and fare freeze as growth stalls

September 11, 2026

Trainline has hit out at tube strikes and the government’s freeze on rail fares, as the train ticketing platform saw sales growth grind to a halt. The FTSE 250 firm posted flat ticket sales in the six months to August, at £2.1bn, blaming “the impact of the regulated fare freeze, additional disruptions from hot weather [...]

Burnham on Brexit: ‘Customs union, single market – or we could go all the way’

Hull City’s ‘strange’ £55m loan was approved by Independent Football Regulator

Think EVs are dull? The Peugeot E-208 GTI will change your mind

By: Felix Armstrong

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