Super Thursday: Embattled retailers could learn from the Tesco turnaround plan January 10, 2019 It wasn’t only children who traditionally looked forward to Christmas: time was when Yuletide sales could be guaranteed to give a substantial boost to Britain’s retailers. No longer. A slew of dismal results published today showed Christmas figures sharply down for a number of household names including M&S and Debenhams, in what the British Retail [...]
Retail’s Super Thursday: The good, the bad and the ugly January 10, 2019 Today's so-called Super Thursday delivered a very mixed shopping basket of retail results, from some fresh bargains ready to be snapped up to others in danger of being labelled as out of date. Tesco, John Lewis, DFS, Debenhams and more released their results on a day dubbed Super Thursday, but which coincided with a dire [...]
Aisle be damned: The knives are out for big UK grocers January 9, 2019 Aldi and Lidl’s tills jingled all the way in December – handing them their highest-ever combined market share for the festive season, data from Kantar Worldpanel showed this week. All the major supermarkets lost market share in the 12 weeks to 30 December as Aldi’s sales jumped 10.4 per cent while Lidl’s were up 9.4 [...]
Sainsbury’s suffers Christmas sales slowdown as Black Friday hurts the supermarket January 9, 2019 Like-for-like sales at Sainsbury’s fell by 1.1 per cent over the Christmas period, the supermarket said today. Total sales excluding fuel dropped by 0.4 per cent in the 15 weeks to 5 January, while general merchandise sales fell by 2.3 per cent and clothing by 0.2 per cent. Read more: Aldi sales hit £1bn in record Christmas [...]
Discounters win war of the supermarkets amid sluggish Christmas growth January 8, 2019 Aldi led the way during a record-breaking Christmas for groceries, even as sales growth slowed across the sector. The supermarket increased sales by 10.4 per cent, narrowly beating fellow discounter Lidl to the top spot, figures from Kantar Worldpanel show. “The discounters have continued to make their mark over Christmas: two-thirds of all households shopped [...]
Morrisons increases sales for a fourth consecutive Christmas but shares fall as it loses market share January 8, 2019 Morrisons posted its fourth consecutive Christmas of growth today, crediting competitive pricing of key festive foods and customer service for its strong performance. Excluding fuel, total sales at the supermarket rose by four per cent in the nine weeks to 6 January, while like-for-like sales grew by 3.6 per cent, with retail contributing 0.6 per [...]
Hobbycraft benefits from Christmas boost as celebrities go big on homemade gifts January 7, 2019 The popularity of personalised gifts and decorations helped Hobbycraft deliver a strong Christmas boost with robust growth in both online and offline sales. The store pointed to celebrities leading the push for personal gifts as like-for-like in-store revenue grew 7.1 per cent, with a 28 per cent bump online. Read more: Debenhams share price plummets [...]
Aldi sales hit £1bn in December as the supermarket records best ever Christmas trading January 7, 2019 Discount supermarket chain Aldi has recorded its best ever UK Christmas trading period after hitting sales of almost £1bn in December. The week commencing 17 December was the busiest day in the history of the retailer in the UK, with sales 10 per cent higher than the previous year. Sales were boosted by demand for [...]
Carrot or stick? For Aldi and Lidl, equal pay goes hand in hand with commercial success December 13, 2018 Kevin the Carrot, who once again features in Aldi’s Christmas advert, is proving a bigger hit with shoppers than even Elton John, star of the John Lewis ad. Soft-toy versions of the animated vegetable sold out at 4am on the day of release in some areas and have reportedly provoked fights among customers desperate to [...]
Mixed bag for Britain’s grocers as market cools despite record Christmas spending forecasts December 11, 2018 Shoppers have been taking fewer trips to the supermarket in recent weeks after a bumper summer of demand, according to new data that suggests Britain's grocery sector has slowed to its lowest rate of growth in more than a year. Despite projections that spending this Christmas will break UK records, the supermarket sector grew at two [...]