Ocado and Marks & Spencer see shares rise on reports of food delivery partnership January 28, 2019 Shares in Marks & Spencer and Ocado were up this morning following reports the firms are in talks over a possible food delivery partnership. Ocado and Marks & Spencer saw their shares rise five per cent and one per cent respectively in early trading after it emerged the retailer could sign a deal to use [...]
70,000 retail jobs lost in 2018, says trade body BRC January 24, 2019 Panic over further troubles on the high street has been underlined this morning, with new figures showing that some 70,000 retail jobs were lost last year. A retail employment monitor out today from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has found that the total number of jobs was down 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of [...]
Take-up of London office space rises as 2018 ends with a ‘bang’ January 21, 2019 Take-up of office space in London soared in the final quarter of 2018, rounding off a year of bumper demand for the capital’s commercial property market. New figures from CBRE show that take-up in Central London for the fourth quarter of 2018 was 3.9m square feet (sq ft), marking a quarterly increase of 13 per [...]
Big Six energy firms slammed by customers in satisfaction survey as smaller suppliers prove popular January 21, 2019 The country’s biggest energy firms have fallen out of favour with customers as smaller suppliers topped a consumer satisfaction survey. The so-called Big Six energy suppliers – British Gas, EDF, Eon, Npower, Scottish Power and SSE – were left languishing at the bottom of the table following a Which survey of 8,000 customers across the [...]
Marks & Spencer launches plastic packaging-free fruit and vegetable trial to try and cut plastic waste January 16, 2019 Marks & Spencer launched a trial today of plastic packaging-free fruit and vegetables at its Tolworth store as it moves to cut the amount of plastic it uses. The retailer said it had introduced trained greengrocers to advise customers on the over 90 lines of loose fruit and vegetables it was selling from two aisles. [...]
M&S reveals next 17 stores in firing line for closure as hundreds of jobs face the chop January 15, 2019 Marks & Spencer revealed the identity of the latest stores that are earmarked for closure today, as a swathe of sites face the firing line amid a downturn for the beleaguered retailer. As many as 1,000 people could face losing their jobs as part of the latest stage in the company's turnaround plan that will [...]
Profiting from the retail revolution: What’s hot and what’s not? January 15, 2019 It turns out that so-called Super Thursday wasn’t so super after all. Despite being lauded as a day when retailers boast strong figures from the festive period, last Thursday proved to be a mixed basket of results. With consumers feeling the pinch and Brexit-sized uncertainty looming large over the high street, it’s not surprising that [...]
Tesco and M&S reveal stockpiling amid concerns of a ‘no deal’ Brexit January 12, 2019 Two of the UK’s biggest supermarkets have revealed they are stockpiling food in case of a “no deal” Brexit. Both Tesco and Marks & Spencer have confirmed they are stockpiling long-life food such as packets and tins ahead of the UK leaving the EU on March 29. M&S chief executive, Steve Rowe, admitted his company’s [...]
Retail round up: What’s happening on the high street? January 11, 2019 Not as bad as it could have been. That’s the general feeling about high street performance over Christmas after major retailers and the supermarkets published their festive figures this week. The British Retail Consortium says that 2018 was the worst Christmas for retails for 10 years but, as ever, the figures show there are winners [...]
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 [...]