Record Christmas sales to drive full-year growth at House of Fraser January 6, 2015 House of Fraser has reported a record Christmas, buoyed by Black Friday and strong online sales growth, helping lift expectations for the department store group's full-year results. Like-for-like sales for the six weeks to January 3 rose eight per cent, with online sales up 31.2 per cent while sales from bricks and mortar stores [...]
Christmas sales flop for UK’s supermarkets January 5, 2015 SUPERMARKETS’ sales were flat on the year over the Christmas period, as the retail giants received little benefit from the economic recovery, industry data showed yesterday. By contrast, consumers were happy to shop elsewhere over the festive season – Black Friday was the biggest shopping day ever, according to numbers from Barclaycard. Supermarket grocery sales [...]
John Lewis calls for an end to heavy Black Friday discounting January 5, 2015 JOHN Lewis boss Andy Street has urged UK firms to hold back on Black Friday discounting because of its heavy cut to profits. The retailer’s managing director said the American-inspired sales day at the end of November gave John Lewis its biggest trading week on record, with sales up 22 per cent on last year, [...]
Fashion chain Bank enters administration leaving more than 1550 jobs at risk January 5, 2015 Fast fashion chain Bank has been placed into administration, less than two months after being sold by JD Sports Fashion. Deloitte is handling the administration, which puts more than 1,550 jobs at risk less than two months after it was bought out by restructuring specialist Hilco Capital. Deloitte's partners Bill Dawson, Daniel [...]
M&S share price suffers after downgrade ahead of third quarter results January 5, 2015 Marks & Spencer shares fell over three per cent in mid-afternoon trading after a downgrade by investment bank Societe Generale and as it prepares to report third quarter sales figures later this week. The British retailer started the new year on the back foot after analysts at Societe Generale took the stock rating from "buy" to [...]
Cork blimey! Christmas champagne outsells semi-skimmed milk at Lidl January 4, 2015 Shoppers at budget supermarket chain Lidl bought more champagne than semi-skimmed milk this Christmas, the retailer has revealed. Figures show that savvy customers snapped up so many bottles of Lidl’s £11.99 Comte De Senneval champagne that it knocked the store’s usual bestseller, semi-skimmed milk, off the top spot for the festive season. The champagne has [...]
Tesco braces for era of pain as Dave Lewis restructures group January 4, 2015 Troubled retail giant Tesco is preparing to give investors a poor set of financial results this Thursday – which is likely to include losses in its core supermarket operations. New boss Dave Lewis has warned shareholders that he is willing to take short-term pain for long-term gain. He is not going to reveal any comprehensive [...]
Best of the Brokers for 05 January 2015 January 4, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com RECKITT BENCKISER S&P Capital IQ maintained its “strong sell” rating, and revealed that the firm’s shares are now trading 21 per cent above its target price. The broker also stated that target price had been raised by two per cent for 2014, while [...]
Tesco to reveal new supplier payment system as fears of second-half loss grows January 4, 2015 In the wake of a terrible 2014 for the retail giant, Tesco is preparing itself to overhaul the way it organises its supply chain. According to the Sunday Times, which quotes senior sources, Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis plans to unpick the complex system of rebates and penalties used to extract money from suppliers, [...]
Black Friday hits John Lewis’ Christmas sales January 2, 2015 He may have been a runaway hit, but not even Monty the Penguin could help John Lewis emulate the success of its Black Friday deals during the Christmas period. Sales at the retailer fell 1.4 per cent during the week of Christmas, with sales of electrical goods falling 14.7 per cent compared with the same [...]