Lidl sales help it hit record stake in UK supermarket sector December 10, 2019 The biggest supermarkets shed yet more market share to discounters Aldi and Lidl in the three months to the start of December, new data out today reveals. The big four grocers saw their collective market share drop by over one per cent to 67.7 per cent as people delayed their Christmas shopping and Black Friday [...]
The Xmas endgame: Why retailers are wasting their money on Christmas TV adverts December 2, 2019 An estimated £6.8bn has been spent on creating and buying airtime for this year’s crop of Christmas commercials — up nearly five per cent on last year’s spend. Certainly, the ads boast high production values, but was this money well spent, or would these brands have been better off holding onto the cash and hoping [...]
UK supermarkets further increase plastic footprint despite pledges November 28, 2019 Seven out of the UK’s top 10 supermarkets increased their plastic footprint , as the total amount of plastic packaging used rose to 900,000 tonnes a year. Out of the UK’s 10 largest supermarkets, only Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s achieved marginal reductions over the past 12 months. Read more: Unilever pledges to cut plastic use [...]
You’ll never guess who ended Apple’s reign as the UK’s best employer November 26, 2019 iPhone titan Apple has been toppled from its top spot on a list of the UK’s top 25 employers. But it wasn’t another tech giant that took Apple’s crown – that honour, in fact, goes to pest control company Rentokil. The Camberley-based rat catchers topped recruiter Indeed’s list of the most popular employers in the [...]
John Lewis, Ikea, or Aldi — which 2019 Christmas advert is the winner? November 18, 2019 From clumsy dragons to evil sprouts, here’s our review of the festive adverts from some of the UK’s biggest retailers. M&S Food: This Is Not Just Food… This Is M&S Christmas Food The premise of this entire advert hinges on presenters Paddy McGuinness and Emma Willis, who swan around a Christmas market for 1.30 minutes as [...]
Christmas adverts 2019: John Lewis unveils Excitable Edgar campaign November 14, 2019 John Lewis has unveiled its highly anticipated Christmas advert this morning, telling the story of a little girl and her accident-prone dragon Excitable Edgar. In the two minute 30 second clip, which marks the department store’s first joint Christmas marketing campaign with Waitrose, viewers see Edgar accidentally derail Christmas festivities with his fire breathing tendencies. [...]
DEBATE: Will the M&S venture with Ocado turn around its fortunes? November 7, 2019 Will Marks & Spencer’s joint venture with Ocado turn around the struggling retailer’s fortunes? YES, says Adam Vettese, investment analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro When you think of Marks & Spencer, you think of food. And not just any food, but top-quality food. In fact, food is so important to M&S that it now [...]
John Lewis threatens to withhold 20 per cent of service charges October 4, 2019 John Lewis is threatening to withhold up to 20 per cent of service charge to landlords to protest the increase in payment amounts . The department store said it is attempting to reduce costs but has been faced with service charge hikes at some of its shopping centre branches. Read more: John Lewis to axe [...]
John Lewis to axe a third of senior managers to save £100m October 1, 2019 The John Lewis Partnership is slashing its senior management layer by one third in a shock £100m bid to cut costs at the struggling retailer. Around 75 senior managers will get the axe from the current total of 225 in head office, John Lewis said. As part of the shake-up, the embattled chain also revealed [...]
Bottle Opener: The best wines for this week’s Rugby World Cup matches September 26, 2019 The 2019 Rugby World Cup is upon us. Despite my status as a proud Welshman, even I cannot bring myself to recommend Welsh wines as an accompaniment to savouring an international rugby match (to all those Welsh wine producers out there, I look forward to being proven wrong). Indeed, many British rugby fans would regard [...]