Mothercare UK boss to exit in team reshuffle January 30, 2013 MOTHERCARE’S UK boss is to leave the baby products retailer as part of a management shake-up to stem falling sales at its troubled UK arm. The retailer said yesterday that Mike Logue, who moved to Mothercare from Asda in late 2011, is to step down next month after the role was made redundant. The restructure [...]
Greencore warns UK market showing little or no growth January 29, 2013 FOOD group Greencore yesterday said a “challenging UK food market” has resulted in flat like-for-like sales in the first quarter of the year. The company, which makes prepared meals and sandwiches for retailers such as Tesco and Asda, said sales at its convenience food division rose 2.5 per cent to £285.8m in the 13 weeks [...]
Online shopping spurs PayPoint January 24, 2013 Credit card processing company PayPoint yesterday said increasing internet transactions led it to a four per cent rise in revenues year-on-year for the three months to January. The firm, whose customers include Sainsburys Local, Asda and the Co-op, processed 193m transactions during the period, up five per cent on last year. The rise in internet [...]
Horse burger fears spread January 16, 2013 SAINSBURY’S, the Co-op and ASDA yesterday cleared their shelves of burgers supplied by companies at the centre of a horse meat scandal. There is no evidence the three supermarkets sold contaminated products but they have taken the precautionary measure following Tuesday’s revelation that the meat content in a sample of Tesco’s Everyday Beef Burgers was 29 per cent [...]
Tesco and Sainsbury’s maintain share after a festive dead-heat January 15, 2013 BRITAIN’S biggest retailer Tesco and third-place grocer Sainsbury’s tied in the battle for sales growth in the key Christmas period, according to data published yesterday. Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Tesco and Sainsbury’s both posted identical gross sales growth rates of 3.9 per cent in the six weeks ending 6 January, with market shares unchanged [...]
M&S’s board still backs Marc Bolland but its patience will not last forever January 9, 2013 THIS was no ordinary trading statement. If Marc Bolland, the Marks & Spencer chief executive, had sold an item from his womenswear ranges last autumn every time the retailer’s advertising slogan had been parroted back at him, he’d have wiped the floor with the rest of the high street. Last night’s hastily-released quarterly trading update [...]
Sainsbury’s takes the lead at Christmas January 8, 2013 SAINSBURY posted the highest sales growth of the so called big four grocers in the run-up to Christmas and was the only one to grow market share, data revealed yesterday. Figures from Kantar Worldpanel showed Britain’s grocery market grew 3.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to 23 December, with the strongest growth at the [...]
Aldi hitting the mainstream as customers seek value January 8, 2013 THIS time last year poor results at Tesco shocked investors and the grocery sector, although followers of YouGov’s BrandIndex and this column would have been aware of their problems a month earlier. With the all-important Christmas season now behind us I’ve taken a look back at 2012 to see what the big customer perception stories [...]
What the other papers say this morning December 17, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Insurers warn regulators on reforms Insurers are conducting a war of words with regulators trying to prevent a repeat of AIG’s collapse, as the industry makes a last-ditch effort to avoid capital surcharges. US banks call for easing of Basel III US banks are making a last-minute push to ease new global liquidity [...]
Walmart eyes Turkish group December 12, 2012 WALMART, the American retail giant which owns Asda in the UK, is is understood to be eyeing a takeover bid for Turkish supermarket group, Migros Ticaret. The retailer has been in talks with private equity group BC Partners about acquiring its 80 per cent stake in the Turkish chain. A source close to Walmart told [...]