After an explosion of apps and billion dollar valuations, is the ultra-fast bubble about to burst? April 1, 2022 Any Londoner on a stroll down a main road in the city is bound to encounter a handful of instant grocery delivery riders zipping past. With Getir, Gorillas and Gopuff among other players on the scene, the category has exploded over the past couple of years with some receiving billion-dollar valuations. The pandemic saw many [...]
Egg farmers: Supermarkets must raise prices by 40p to avert sector crisis March 31, 2022 Egg farmers have called on supermarkets to up the price of a dozen eggs by 40p as producers face cost pressures. Many free range egg farmers are bleeding cash on every egg laid by one of their hens, according to the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA). Shoppers in the UK were unable to [...]
Tesco to stock £2 lateral flow tests from Friday March 31, 2022 Tesco is going to stock £2 lateral flow tests in store and online as of tomorrow. The supermarket giant signed a deal with healthcare firm Everything Genetic, as the government ends access to free lateral flows. The £2 kits, which are “less than a price of a takeaway coffee” will be available in more than [...]
Gorillas on the hunt for fresh $500m funding injection March 27, 2022 Rapid grocery delivery firm Gorillas is looking for a fresh $500m funding injection to fuel its growth as investor cash continues to pour into the sector.
Lockdown DIYers push B&Q owner Kingfisher past £1bn profit March 22, 2022 Kingfisher’s sales shot up last year as the B&Q owner became the third UK retailer to exceed £1bn profit. The home improvement behemoth joined retail titans Tesco and Marks & Spencer when it revealed its profits had reached record levels on Tuesday. Lockdown DIYers sent sales past £13bn for the year to 31 January, thanks [...]
Supermarkets made hay from restrictions, now they need to consolidate to keep going March 11, 2022 THE rapid grocery delivery sector has grown at a staggering pace across Europe and the US. Two years on from when we first saw Getir, Weezy, Zapp and Gorillas advertised on buses and hoardings across London, data from the ONS revealed the average weekly sales of online groceries in December 2021 were £372m – more [...]
Amazon makes major U-turn by shutting all book stores and physical shops in UK March 6, 2022 E-commerce giant Amazon has said it is planning to shut all of its book stores as well as its other brick-and-mortar shops and pop-up stores in the UK and US. The shock announcement to close down all 68 book stores, as well as shops that offer toys and home goods in Britain and the US, [...]
Discount retailers benefit from cost of living crunch as shoppers head to Aldi and Lidl March 1, 2022 Grocery price inflation hit a new high of 4.3 per cent last month, with budget supermarkets luring shoppers in as the cost of living intensifies. Fresh data from Kantar reveals the fastest rate of inflation since September 2013, with the exception of the start of the pandemic when households panic bought essentials. Aldi and Lidl [...]
Second chances: Ex-offenders could help solve recruitment crisis February 28, 2022 “I always wanted to be a drug dealer. Getting a job would have been strange to me,” Liam Meredith, an ex-offender who now runs his own catering business, says. Many young men like Meredith struggle to break a cycle of offending even after they leave prison, due to tumultuous home lives. For men like Meredith, [...]
EV charging provider EO extends deadline for US SPAC merger February 25, 2022 Electric vehicle (EV) charging provider EO Charging has extended the deadline to complete a $675m merger with US special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) First Reserve Sustainable Growth. Sources said that, while the agreement is required to be finalised by 11 March, doubts on whether the company will meet the deadline have emerged, Sky News has [...]