No Waitrose for Sir Terry’s wife February 3, 2013 FORMER Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy was in charge of the playlist yesterday, getting listeners dancing in the aisles by mixing folk with Handel’s Messiah on Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs. Sir Terry began his Tesco career as a shelf-stacker in Wandsworth and rose to become chief executive of the grocer from 1997 to 2011. [...]
Tesco fightback steadies giant’s market share January 29, 2013 TESCO maintained its market share and matched market growth for the first time since June 2011, according to the latest grocery share data from Kantar Worldpanel. The UK’s biggest supermarket grew sales year-on-year by 3.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to 20 January, giving it a market share of 30.4 per cent, as its [...]
Rose will keep up Ocado’s appearances – but little else January 22, 2013 WHEN Sir Stuart Rose dipped his toe back in the retail waters by becoming chairman of Blue Inc and backing The Hut last year, it should have been obvious he had his eye on bigger things. But why Ocado? This column – not to mention several high-profile City analysts – have long taken a dim [...]
Ocado chair Michael Grade poised to retire January 21, 2013 OCADO chairman Michael Grade is set to announce his retirement as chairman of the online retailer as early as today. Lord Grade, formerly executive chairman of ITV, has been chairman of Ocado for seven years, overseeing the company’s £800m float three years ago. He is tipped to stand down at Ocado’s annual general meeting in [...]
Baugur chief to burger king January 13, 2013 Former Baugur chief Jon Asgeir Johannesson has re-emerged on the UK investment landscape – as an angel investor in an artisan beef burger maker. Johannesson, who led investments in some of the UK’s biggest high street names before the financial crash, has taken a 25 per cent stake in Muddy Boots Real Foods, a family [...]
The good, the bad January 10, 2013 THE DIVIDED state of the UK retail sector was brought into sharp focus yesterday as an upbeat Tesco and Shop Direct claimed victory in the Christmas retail wars, while Marks and Spencer suffered the fallout of a worse-than-expected festive period. Following muted performances by rivals Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, a resurgent Tesco revealed its strongest sales [...]
Why Tesco’s cracking results took the Christmas crown January 10, 2013 HOW to find a clear winner in the Christmas battle of the supermarkets? Not from the headline figures, it seems, after straightforward data releases from Sainsbury and Tesco descended into a furore over the small print. Tesco reported like-for-like sales growth of 1.8 per cent over Christmas. Sainsbury reported like-for-like growth of 0.9 per cent. [...]
EAT hires new chief from Costa January 9, 2013 EAT has poached former managing director of Costa Coffee’s retail arm Adrian Johnson to be its new chief executive, the chain said yesterday. It has also bolstered its board by appointing Waitrose veteran Tony Solomons as a senior non-executive.
Sainsbury’s takes the lead at Christmas January 8, 2013 SAINSBURY posted the highest sales growth of the so called big four grocers in the run-up to Christmas and was the only one to grow market share, data revealed yesterday. Figures from Kantar Worldpanel showed Britain’s grocery market grew 3.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to 23 December, with the strongest growth at the [...]
Waitrose smashes Christmas sales records January 3, 2013 WAITROSE yesterday toasted record trading in the run-up to the New Year after the grocer said aggressive promotions on products such as champagne and its Brand Price Match campaign helped to lure customers from rivals. The upmarket supermarket, which is owned by John Lewis, said like-for-like sales rose 5.4 per cent between 18 December New [...]