Tesco: Here’s who is eyeing up its South Korean business Homeplus September 8, 2015 Embattled retailer Tesco has reportedly invited five private equity firms, and one department store chain, to bid for its South Korean unit Homeplus which is valued at around about $6bn (£3.9bn). US-based KKR and Carlyle Group are among the potential runners and riders, according to a report by Reuters. London-based CVC Capital Partners, Hong Kong-based Affinity Equity Partners and [...]
Ex-Sainsbury’s boss Justin King takes on first big role since leaving September 7, 2015 The former chief executive of Sainsbury's, Justin King, is set to take on his first major role since leaving the supermarket last year. King, who is widely credited with reversing the fortunes of the supermarket chain, is due to become vice-chairman of private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners. "A source close to Terra Firma [...]
“Drastic Dave” Lewis is delivering at Tesco with £4.2bn sale of South Korean arm Homeplus to MBK September 7, 2015 Ever since Dave Lewis was appointed chief executive of Tesco last year, he has made strengthening the balance sheet a priority for the troubled retailer. Although Homeplus in South Korea was a profitable business, the focus has been on protecting Tesco’s UK market share in light of increasing competition from lower priced discounters, such as [...]
Milk emergency: Farmers face water cannons as they stage huge protest in Brussels against falling prices September 7, 2015 Today, thousands of farmers have driven their tractors into Brussels to protest against falling milk prices in Europe. They are gathering outside the headquarters of the European Union, bringing traffic to a standstill. The protest coincides with an emergency meeting held by the EU Agriculture Council in the Belgian capital. Anti-riot police have [...]
Morrisons pulled up on Match & More price-match advert claims against competitors Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and Lidl August 26, 2015 Morrisons has been told it must be clearer about its promise to match the prices of competitors, including Aldi and Lidl. The supermarket's Match & More scheme, which is the only one of the big four to match the prices of the German discounters, has been pulled up by the advertising watchdog for not clearly [...]
Supermarket wars: Big Four in big trouble as Tesco, Asda and Morrisons register more declines August 25, 2015 Tesco is still struggling to shrug off competition from the discount supermarkets, as data released this morning reveals yet more declines. While consumer spend within the grocery sector rose 0.9 per cent for the 12 weeks to 16 August, at Tesco it dropped by the same proportion. The price of a comparable basket of [...]
Tesco share price falls as supermarkets suffer for third day amid renewed concerns about discounters Aldi and Lidl August 20, 2015 When one supermarket sneezes, it seems the rest catch a cold. Shares in troubled supermarket Tesco fell to their lowest level since January this morning, two days after Asda reignited concerns over the threat from German discounters. Tesco shares dropped 1.77 per cent today, while Sainsbury's shed 0.77 per cent. Both are down about four percent since [...]
Asda promises turnaround after sales hit rock bottom August 19, 2015 ASDA chief executive Andy Clarke insisted that the company was seeing the first “green shoots” of a recovery despite revealing its worst ever quarterly result in the 16 years it has been owned by US chain Wal-Mart. The supermarket chain, which recently lost its position as Britain’s second-largest food retailer to Sainsbury’s, said like-for-like sales [...]
Don’t fear low inflation: It’s great news for consumers while it lasts August 18, 2015 The latest retail figures in the UK showed good growth. Things are also looking up in the US and in much of the euro area. The world economy has settled into a period of steady growth with very little inflation in the major economies. Indeed, just yesterday, official figures revealed that consumer price index inflation [...]
Premier Foods’ share price opens lower as sales drop amid supermarket price war July 23, 2015 Premier Foods' share price opened lower this morning as the group that owns Mr Kipling, Bisto gravy and Ambrosia custard revealed a sluggish effort to shake off the impact from the supermarket price wars. The figures: Branded sales were down 1.4 per cent while non-branded foods dropped 3.1 per cent. In total, group sales were [...]