Christmas shoppers shunned the high street, but attacking Amazon won’t help January 11, 2019 Between the fierce renewal of the Brexit saga, parliamentary shenanigans, and a particularly chilling cold front (interpret that literally or metaphorically, as you will), the merriness of Christmas feels like a thing of the past. But for the high street, it feels like Christmas never came at all. Reports of retail sales, released yesterday by [...]
Mark Kleinman’s big predictions for the Square Mile in 2019 January 11, 2019 Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP exit, Unilever’s HQ U-turn, Melrose’s swoop for GKN: 2018 was a year full of surprises in the City. And while forecasting might be a fool’s errand, here are 10 predictions for the year ahead. •Theresa May will decisively lose next week’s “meaningful vote” on Brexit: that’s not a punt that will [...]
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basket of retail results, from some fresh bargains ready to be snapped up to others in danger of being labelled as out of date.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 [...]
Debenhams’ Christmas sales slip as it continues talks with lenders over its future January 10, 2019 Sales at troubled department store chain Debenhams dived over Christmas, its latest trading update revealed today, sending its share price even lower. In the 18 weeks to 5 January like-for-like sales fell 5.7 per cent compared to the same period last year. Read more: These are the high street retailers that collapsed in 2018 The [...]
Marks & Spencer blames weak consumer confidence for drop in Christmas sales January 10, 2019 Sales slumped at Marks & Spencer over the key Christmas shopping period, the retailer said today, as analysts criticised its "outdated" business model for an over-reliance on high street shoppers. The figures Like-for-like UK sales fell by 2.2 per cent year on year in the three months to the end of December to hit £2.78bn. [...]
High street faces chilly week ahead as disappointing festive trading updates expected January 6, 2019 High street retailers are expected to be further under the cosh by the end of the week, with a flurry of quarterly trading updates due in the coming days. Troubled department store Marks and Spencer is one of several set to reveal yet another fall in sales over the festive period, according to analysts at [...]
High street remains in hedge funds’ sights as bets against the consumer sector rise in final quarter January 6, 2019 Hedge funds continued to turn the screws on high street retailers, restaurants and makers of consumer goods at the end of last year, with short positions in the sector increasing 20 per cent. The rise in bets against the industry came in the final three months of the year, and means nearly one-third of total [...]
Horse Racing Betting Tips: Enola Gay can pay for the day at Sandown January 3, 2019 CHRISTMAS was a bit of a slog for punters. Unexpected results in the King George and the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day, as well as a fistful of unfancied winners throughout the festive period, meant the bookies rolled into 2019 on top. Tomorrow’s card at Sandown, where the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle is [...]
Next defies Christmas fears with online sales boost but outlook remains cautious amid Brexit uncertainty January 3, 2019 Next has opened the crucial post-Christmas trading update season by reducing its full-year profit expectations, but defied investor worries by increasing sales. The retailer said full-price sales for the festive period were up 1.5 per cent between 28 October and 29 December, in line with its expectations. Next reported a 14.9 per cent increase in online [...]
Why 2019 will not mark the death of the high street January 2, 2019 When HMV went into administration in 2013, disgruntled employees used the retailer’s Twitter account to give live updates of the “mass execution” at the beleaguered music firm. However, ahead of last week’s announcement that the the 97-year-old business was collapsing for a second time, passwords for all its social media accounts were changed to avoid [...]