Lidl invests £15bn in British suppliers October 16, 2019 Lidl has announced a £15bn investment in its UK suppliers as it pledged to sell more British meat and fresh food. The German discount supermarket announced the five-year investment today as it marked 25 years operating in the UK. Read more: Lidl’s suppliers warned of EU tariff import costs As part of the announcement, the [...]
Click and collect services could boost in-store sales October 16, 2019 Investment in click and collect services could boost bricks and mortar sales as customers make last minute purchases when they pick-up items in store. More than eight in 10 customers said they buy extra items in store when using click and collect, according to the latest research, and more than three quarters of retailers said [...]
Sainsbury’s beats rivals to report sales growth October 15, 2019 Sainsbury’s beat its rivals to become the only major UK supermarket to report sales growth in the last 12 weeks. The grocer’s sales increased 0.6 per cent, its fastest rate since October last year, while the other “Big Four” supermarkets- Tesco, Asda and Morrisons – saw sales decline 0.2 per cent, 0.9 per cent and [...]
Sorry not sorry: End the apology culture in business October 15, 2019 When David Neeleman, the founder of American airline JetBlue, published a YouTube video entitled “Our Promise to You” in 2007, it was the first corporate social media apology. The video set the standard for modern crisis management. Snow storms and bad planning had forced the airline to cancel more than a thousand flights, affecting over [...]
Unilever pledges to cut plastic use in half October 7, 2019 Unilever has pledged to halve the amount of new plastic it uses over the next five years by increasing its efforts in producing reusable and recyclable packaging. The consumer goods giant, which owns brands such as Dove and Ben & Jerry’s, said it will reduce its use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 tonnes [...]
Tesco Bank appoints ex-Treasury mandarin to board October 7, 2019 Tesco Bank has appointed Sir John Kingman, the ex-Treasury mandarin who supervised the UK’s bank bailouts during the financial crisis, to its board as a non-executive director. Kingman was second permanent secretary to the Treasury in 2008, when Britain’s banks were given hundreds of billions of pounds by the UK government to keep them afloat [...]
BP drills closer to home than Tesco for new CEO October 4, 2019 If the benchmark for CEO succession planning is to have a slate of credible internal candidates ready to take the helm when a veteran boss retires, this week’s news suggests that BP deserves plaudits and Tesco brickbats. In reality, the situation at the two companies is more nuanced, but both the impending departures of Bob [...]
DEBATE: Is the departure of Dave Lewis a problem for Tesco? October 3, 2019 Is the surprise departure of Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis a serious problem for the company? YES, says Adam Vettese, an investment analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro. It’s going to be a challenge for Tesco. To say that Dave Lewis will be a tough act to follow is an understatement. He took over at [...]
Few get to choose their manner of exit October 2, 2019 At least one of the corporate titans to announce their departure yesterday had been thinking about it for some time. Martin Gilbert told this newspaper nearly a year ago that picking the moment for a smooth exit is tough. “When things are going well,” he said, “you don’t want to leave — and when they’re [...]
Metro Bank shares jump after new bond deal and departure of chairman Vernon Hill October 2, 2019 Metro Bank’s share price jumped in trading today after the embattled lender revealed the succesful relaunch of a £250m bond issue and the planned departure of chairman Vernon Hill. Shares in the group climbed 30 per cent to 234p in trading this afternoon as investors reacted to the firm’s double announcement. The challenger bank had [...]