Bottom Line: Every Lidl helps: Discounters’ big future June 17, 2014 IF THE UK’s biggest supermarkets have any scraps of hope left that the discounters will soon stop nipping at their market share, they should abandon them now. Discount is set to be one of the fastest growing channels for years to come, adding €40bn (£32bn) in sales across Western Europe by 2018, according to a [...]
Justin King confident Sainsbury’s will still outperform June 11, 2014 Sainsbury’s outgoing chief executive Justin King said he was confident that the supermarket chain would continue to outperform its rivals long after he had gone, despite the group reporting a fall in like-for-like sales for a second consecutive quarter. King has overseen nine years of unbroken growth during his time at the company and has [...]
Bottom Line: As the going gets tough, Justin King gets going June 11, 2014 There was a lot of back-slapping at Sainsbury’s yesterday, with Justin King talking up his successor, and his successor lavishing praise on the soon-to-depart chief executive. “When Justin started at the business we were serving 14m customers a week, and now we’re serving 24m a week. That’s a great achievement,” enthused Mike Coupe. King insists the [...]
Justin King’s final curtain: Sainsbury’s CEO goes out on sliding sales June 11, 2014 It is chief executive Justin King’s last set of results, and Sainsbury's has reported a 1.1 per cent fall in like-for-like sales – in line with expectations. Including fuel, they dropped 2.4 per cent in the 12 weeks to 7 June. But shares have risen by as much as two per cent this morning. Darren [...]
Sainsbury’s to trial selling clothing online June 9, 2014 Sainsbury is to take on its high street and supermarket rivals by selling its clothing brand TU online for the first time. People close to the company previously said that clothing margins were too low justify delivering clothes bought online to customers. However in a statement yesterday Sainsbury’s said it will pilot selling [...]
Tesco share price is falling after sales plummeted again June 4, 2014 Another set of falling sales figures from Tesco this morning. The UK supermarket giant has reported a 3.7 per cent drop in like-for-like sales – 3.8 per cent when including petrol. That does mark the store’s third drop in a row but is, however, better than the four per cent decline analysts were expecting. Revenues [...]
Bottom Line: It’s crunch time for Clarke and Philips June 3, 2014 THE NUMBERS are dire. Despite splashing out more than £3bn over the past year, the UK’s three biggest listed firms – Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons – are all shedding market share, with the former showing its weakest growth in 11 years. Analysts are slashing the sector left, right and centre, and with Tesco expected to reveal another [...]
Bottom Line: Discount retailers keep surging whatever the economic weather May 11, 2014 IT’S NOT exactly a dramatic rebirth but there are some stirrings of spring in these figures. Unsurprisingly, particularly at a time of year when the national imagination turns to home improvement, UK consumers invested even more this April in their fastest-appreciating assets than they did 12 months before, with DIY spending up 11.9 per cent [...]
The week in brief April 27, 2014 Sony in Made in Chelsea stint Sony will become the first product placement partner for E4’s reality TV show. The deal, brokered by Mediacom and Channel 4, will see six cast members using the Xperia Z1 Compact phone. Channel 4’s Rob Ramsey said: “Xperia Z1 Compact is a perfect PP partner.. The cast are socially [...]
City & Gild: How Tesco can make us fall back in love with its brand April 17, 2014 Tesco’s current strategy worries me enormously, especially off the back of a six per cent fall in profits. Chief executive Philip Clarke has confidently explained, “Tesco will be firmly established as a middle-market retailer, which offers low prices and good quality – all under one roof”. My translation of this is essentially, “we’re going to [...]