In tune: Synth makers Sequential snapped up by Focusrite for £18m as revenues grow April 27, 2021 High-end synthesizer firm Sequential boasted revenues of $18.3m last year, which hit all the right notes for audio products company Focusrite to buy it for $24m today. The existing management and team will stay with the California based Sequential post-acquisition. Meanwhile, the company could receive up to $4m more, depending on its performance. Focusrite’s board [...]
Staff hauled out millions of euros in cash from Wirecard’s HQ in Aldi and Lidl shopping bags April 23, 2021 Wirecard employees hauled out millions of euros in cash from the group’s Munich headquarters, according to former employees. Former employees told Munich police that staff repeatedly removed large sums of cash in Aldi and Lidl plastic bags from Wirecard’s HQ, the Financial Times first reported. The practice started as early as 2012, and suggests fraudulent [...]
Drinking around the world: Romanian wines to die for April 20, 2021 My introduction to Romanian wine was inauspicious. It came in one of Count Dracula’s tourist castle hotels in Transylvania. We sat around a coffin-shaped table as a black-suited waiter approached and smiled, revealing not particularly threatening canines. As he brandished the wine list he said, “May I have the pleasure of providing sir with a [...]
Tesco profits tumble despite surge in pandemic sales April 14, 2021 Tesco’s pre-tax profit fell by 20 per cent to £825m in 2020 despite a pandemic-driven jump in group sales. The UK’s biggest grocer said it incurred £892m of Covid-related costs during the year and repaid £535m of business rates relief. The retailer reported a 6.3 per cent rise in group like-for-like sales, including a 7.7 [...]
The Week Ahead: Tesco, Coinbase IPO, JD Sports, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs April 12, 2021 Some of the biggest banks are set to report earnings this week, with JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs all due on Wednesday. On a macro level, Tuesday’s UK GDP figures and inflation data from the US are undoubtedly going to be important. Meanwhile, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, goes public. City A.M. looks at [...]
Supermarket clothing sales double as shoppers seek retail therapy April 7, 2021 Supermarket clothing sales boomed last month as consumers sought in-person shopping experiences while non-essential retailers were closed, in a positive indicator of pent up demand ahead of high streets reopening next week. Sales of clothing at supermarkets doubled to £313m in the four weeks ended 27 March. Home and garden sales also collectively jumped to [...]
Panic over: Brits made 117m fewer trips to the supermarket this March March 30, 2021 Brits made 117m fewer trips to supermarkets this month than in March 2020, which was a month that saw supermarket shelves stripped bare as consumers started panic buying ahead of the UK’s first national lockdown. Grocery sales fell three per cent in the four weeks to 21 March 2021, while during the same period last [...]
Co-op Group under pressure to repay £80m of government funding March 4, 2021 The Co-op board will reportedly meet next week to discuss handing back millions in government cash it was handed during the pandemic. The move would follow in the footsteps of leading supermarkets who returned business rates relief at the end of last year and have pledged to forgo the break announced in the Budget. The [...]
Waitrose opens new London warehouse in online delivery push March 4, 2021 Waitrose has opened a new London warehouse in partnership with Wincanton in a bid to boost its online delivery capacity. The supermarket, which last year ended its partnership with Ocado, said the warehouse in Greenford will deliver 25,000 orders each week and employ an extra 800 staff when it opens fully later this year. That [...]
Aldi and Lidl sales growth slows as discounters struggle to compete with Big Four’s online capabilities March 2, 2021 The growth of the discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi has slowed as the Big Four UK grocers benefitted from their more established online presence during the pandemic. German budget grocers Lidl and Aldi reported that sales were up 10.9 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively in the 12 weeks to 21 February. However, three [...]