How Iceland found the perfect Christmas campaign formula December 11, 2019 Twas the month before Christmas (in 2018), and the festive cheer was seemingly “cancelled” for British frozen food giant Iceland. “We’re absolutely gutted,” a defeated Richard Walker, Iceland’s managing director, told the BBC. “We wanted to share this message far and wide.” Well, for Richard, Christmas miracles are very much real. This particular miracle began when [...]
US Congress and White House agree ‘best deal ever’ to replace Nafta December 10, 2019 US President Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi have agreed on a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with Canada and Mexico. The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives gave her support for the USMCA this afternoon. Read more: US and Canada quash fears with last-minute deal to revamp Nafta In exchange [...]
General Election: Boris Johnson breaks Brexit ‘gridlock’ in JCB digger December 10, 2019 As Thursday’s General Election nears, Boris Johnson has been driving home his Brexit message – by driving a JCB into a wall. In a visit to a factory in Stafford, the Conservative leader drove one of the vehicles, which was specially branded with Union Jacks, through a white polystyrene wall with “gridlock” written on it. [...]
Debenhams strengthens board as department store implements rescue plan December 10, 2019 Beleaguered department store Debenhams has appointed the former boss of Argos as a non-executive director in order to strengthen its board as it implements a turnaround plan. John Walden, who was chief executive of Home Retail Group until it sold Argos to Sainsbury’s in 2016 and is currently chairman of Naked Wines, has been appointed [...]
Whisky business: A wintry trip to the magical Highlands December 10, 2019 Winter sun, this ain’t. Trundling northwards through the Cairngorms towards Inverness, you could be forgiven for thinking you were travelling through an alien landscape. Grey, spare hills emerge from the drizzly low cloud; the “torrents and loud-poured floods” of Rabbie Burns’ poetry run high and violent. Not for nothing do the Scots have several different [...]
Where Co-op will open 30 new stores before Christmas December 10, 2019 Co-op is aiming to open 30 new stores in the run-up to Christmas, as it invests £25m in sites at transport hubs, residential blocks and key city locations. The new stores are expected to create up to 500 jobs, bringing some festive cheer to the UK retail industry following a challenging year for the high [...]
Lidl sales help it hit record stake in UK supermarket sector December 10, 2019 The biggest supermarkets shed yet more market share to discounters Aldi and Lidl in the three months to the start of December, new data out today reveals. The big four grocers saw their collective market share drop by over one per cent to 67.7 per cent as people delayed their Christmas shopping and Black Friday [...]
How the Tories could become the party of the working class December 10, 2019 Polls are inherently unreliable. We know this from the 2017 election, the 2015 election, the 2016 EU referendum — the list goes on. The latest polls show a roughly 10-point lead for the Tories. That should be enough to form a government, but is some way off the 68 seat majority that YouGov’s famous MRP [...]
Shoppers to spend more than £4bn at independent shops over festive season December 10, 2019 Small retailers are set to enjoy a £4.4bn spending boost over the festive season as Christmas shoppers plan to support independent businesses, according to the latest research. Shoppers are expected to spend £140.4m at small businesses every day in December, as consumers prepare to buy nearly a fifth of their gifts from independent retailers. Read [...]
General Election 2019: The rail industry’s Christmas wishlist December 10, 2019 The rail industry is on the verge of the most precipitous change since John Major took it private 28 years ago – whether it likes it or not. On the one hand, the Conservatives are likely to tear apart the system which decides who runs each line – known as franchising – having grown impatient [...]