O2 and Virgin Media confirm merger to create £31bn telecoms player May 7, 2020 O2 and Virgin Media have confirmed a merger to form a multi-play broadband giant that would be valued at a combined total of £31.4bn. The pair pledged to invest £10bn into the UK over the next five years while saving £6.2bn through combined synergies, or £540m a year five years after the merger completes. But [...]
McColl’s finance chief departs for Holland & Barrett May 6, 2020 The chief financial officer of McColl’s Retail Group will step down to join health food retailer Holland & Barrett, the convenience store chain announced this morning. McColl’s said Robbie Bell had resigned to take up the finance chief role at Holland & Barrett. The company has launched a search for a successor, saying Bell will [...]
Tesco expands online order capacity to 1m slots a week during coronavirus crisis April 28, 2020 Tesco has expanded its online shopping capacity to 1m slots, almost double the number of orders the supermarket was able to fulfil before the coronavirus crisis. The grocer, which previously had between 500,000 and 600,000 slots available each week, will expand its capacity further to 1.2m orders per week as demand for deliveries continues to [...]
Shoppers spend extra £524m at UK supermarkets in April April 28, 2020 Shoppers spent an extra £524m at UK supermarkets during the coronavirus lockdown compared to April last year. Grocery sales soared 9.1 per cent in the 12 weeks to 19 April, which were £524m higher in the past four weeks than they were in April 2019. Households made a record low 14 trips to UK supermarkets [...]
Opinion: Supermarkets look a good bet April 20, 2020 The received wisdom at present is that UK property capital markets have pretty much gone into suspended animation in the face of the pandemic, but this certainly isn’t the case in the grocery-led sector. There are currently seven substantial supermarket transactions totalling around £205m which are either under offer or due to imminently complete. And [...]
Coronavirus: When are supermarket opening times for NHS and pensioners? April 17, 2020 As the UK heads into lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak, supermarkets have enforced tighter restrictions and changed opening hours. Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday ordered all “non-essential” shops to close, leaving supermarkets one of the few stores to remain open. In recent weeks supermarkets have struggled to keep shelves replenished as consumers embarked on [...]
Coronavirus: SMEs will need more than a slow-moving loan scheme to recover April 17, 2020 Britain was once disparagingly described as a nation of shopkeepers and now, over two centuries later, small, and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the British economy. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, SMEs account for the vast majority of the UK business population; three fifths of employment and around half of the UK’s [...]
Coronavirus: FTSE 100 ends two-day rally as EU recovery stalls April 8, 2020 The FTSE 100 could not recover from a 1.2 per cent slump today after EU finance ministers failed to agree steps towards a coronavirus recovery. London’s blue-chip index fell 65 points to 5,638 within its first half hour of trading today. It followed two consecutive days of sharp gains for the FTSE 100. France’s Cac [...]
Coronavirus: Tesco could take £925m hit on extra staff and delivery costs April 8, 2020 Tesco warned it could take a hit of up to £925m due to the impact of hiring extra staff and ramping up distribution due to the coronavirus outbreak. The supermarket this morning said it expects retail costs to increase by between £650m and £925m, but said the sales boost caused by stockpiling and business rates [...]
Coronavirus: Tesco builds NHS staff shop at Nightingale hospital April 7, 2020 Tesco has secured a contract to provide a pop-up shop at a new Nightingale NHS hospital, which is being constructed to treat the surge in coronavirus patients. On Sunday the supermarket began work on the first pop-up store at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, which is being transformed into a coronavirus hospital. Tesco [...]