Peacocks rescued from administration, saving 2,000 high street jobs April 6, 2021 High street retail chain Peacocks has been rescued from administration after being bought by an investment consortium, saving around 2,000 jobs. Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, the retail empire owned by billionaire businessman Philip Day, has agreed to support the sale of its high street brand. EWM Group said it had backed a bid by an [...]
GameStop shares slump as it plans $1bn post-rally stock sale April 5, 2021 GameStop shares slump as it plans $1bn post-rally stock sale
The retail behemoths of the future will be the ones crafting a seamless online platform April 3, 2021 A casual observer of the much publicised takeovers of high street behemoths like Debenhams by online retailers such as Boohoo would be tempted to conclude that having an online presence is the swiftest hack for a brand to succeed in the current retail climate. But that is not the case. The UK may have leapfrogged [...]
S&P 500 breaks through 4,000 mark as FTSE 100 pushes higher April 1, 2021 The S&P 500 broke through the 4,000 mark for the first time today as buoyant tech stocks and optimism about reopenings boosted Wall Street. The index was up 0.8 per cent 4,006 points shortly before 5pm. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq also rose 0.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. The rapid rollout of [...]
Top of the shops: Asos sales growth set to continue due to lockdown gains April 1, 2021 Asos is set to report a further jump in earnings and sales as continuing lockdown restrictions have kept consumers shopping online. Revenue is expected to jump 22 per cent to around £1.95bn when it updates shareholders on its trading performance for the half year to February. Earnings are also expected to surge 135 per cent [...]
Next pauses Myanmar production after year of strong online sales April 1, 2021 Next has paused its production orders from Myanmar, it’s boss said today, as the military coup grows more deadly. “We’re not placing any more orders at the moment, that is a big step,” CEO Simon Wolfson told Reuters. “Most of the stock that we were sourcing from Myanmar…we have alternatives in place already for that [...]
Boots hikes profit forecasts as pharmacy sales offset high street slump March 31, 2021 The US owner of Boots today hiked its profit forecasts for the full year as higher pharmacy sales helped offset lower footfall during lockdown. Walgreen Boots Alliance posted an 8.4 per cent increase in profit to $1bn (£725m) in the second quarter, driven by a rise in comparable pharmacy sales in the US. Revenue for [...]
Topps Tiles puts in resilient performance despite lockdown closing stores March 31, 2021 Topps Tiles saw revenue grow in the first half of its 2021 financial year despite the recent coronavirus lockdown closing its stores and halting its commercial work. In the 26 weeks ending 27 March, the tile specialist saw revenues of £103.6m, down slightly from £106m during the same period in 2020. In the first [...]
Panic over: Brits made 117m fewer trips to the supermarket this March March 30, 2021 Brits made 117m fewer trips to supermarkets this month than in March 2020, which was a month that saw supermarket shelves stripped bare as consumers started panic buying ahead of the UK’s first national lockdown. Grocery sales fell three per cent in the four weeks to 21 March 2021, while during the same period last [...]
Pennon eyes acquisitions as it sits on £3bn cash pile March 30, 2021 Water utility firm Pennon today said it was eyeing acquisition opportunities as it expects to end the financial year with over £3bn of cash. The firm said it had established a sustainable capital structure as it continued a review of growth opportunities benchmarked against a return of capital to shareholders. The FTSE 250 firm said [...]