CBRE GI’s supermarket sweep October 15, 2012 CBRE Global Investors yesterday said it has bought five supermarkets across the UK for around £62m. The acquisitions include two Waitrose stores in Frimley and East Grinstead, two Sainsbury’s stores in Chadwell Heath and West Wickham and a Co-op in Leeds. “These five acquisitions offer secure income streams of more than 15 years and with [...]
Paralympic win for Sainsbury’s as its sales rise October 9, 2012 J SAINSBURY’S sponsorship of the Paralympic Games and Brand Match campaign has helped the British supermarket steal market share from its three biggest rivals. New figures from industry experts Kantar Worldpanel showed that Sainsbury’s sales rose 5.6 per cent in the 12 weeks to 30 September, boosting its share of the UK grocery market to [...]
A Twitter storm in a teacup for Waitrose October 2, 2012 LAST week was Social Media Week, an international meeting of minds where media types got together (online and offline) to discuss using social media data. An example of a company that should have taken a harder look before it leapt into the deep end of the social media pool was Waitrose, whose #Waitrosereasons Twitter campaign [...]
Finsbury Foods reports great bake-off as sales top £200m September 24, 2012 FINSBURY Food Group, the cake and bread maker, yesterday posted a surge in full-year profits across all of its divisions after sales exceeded £200m for the first time. The Aim-listed company, which supplies retailers including Waitrose, Tesco and Thorntons, said adjusted profits before tax rose 11.6 per cent to £6.5m for the year to 30 [...]
Twenty-four carat case for gold September 18, 2012 AS WARREN Buffett famously said: “You can’t eat gold.” But US dollars are not particularly nutritious either and neither are pounds sterling. However, the amount of food you can buy with your gold is steadily increasing, and has been for the last decade; whereas what you can buy with a wallet full of fiat currency [...]
Jubilee holiday and Olympics help John Lewis September 13, 2012 JOHN Lewis Partnership yesterday revealed that it enjoyed a strong start to the year as first-half profits jumped by 59.8 per cent to £144.5m but said consumer demand remained “fragile”. Gross sales for the six months to July were up 8.7 per cent at £3.9bn, which the firm attributed to capitalising on major events such [...]
Virtual gains help support the expense of physical expansion September 13, 2012 JUDGING from these results, one unfortunate legacy of a golden summer for John Lewis is going to be how disappointing its figures seem next time around. The exceptional achievement of a near 60 per cent rise in pre-tax profit also rests on a number of one-off events: a low base for comparison, a Diamond Jubilee [...]
John Lewis posts leap in first-half profit September 13, 2012 Profits at British retailer John Lewis jumped 60 per cent in the first half of the year, after strong sales growth at both the department stores and Waitrose brand. John Lewis made a pre-tax profit of £144.5m in the six months to 28 July, boosted by the Jubilee and Olympic Games. Group revenue climbed 8.6 [...]
Kantar reports healthy growth in grocery sales September 11, 2012 GROCERS have continued to expand through 2012, Kantar Worldpanel revealed yesterday, with growth at the very top and bottom driving pace in the market. Total sales by grocers were £23.5bn in the 12 weeks to 2 September, up from £22.7bn in the same period last year, growth of 3.3 per cent. All of the big [...]
Supermarkets enjoy a rare lift during summer September 3, 2012 THE RETURN of the warmer summer weather together with the Olympics and the use of vouchers helped grocers enjoy their best trading performance of the year last month, in a rare bright spot amid the gloom across the rest of the retail industry. According to the latest figures from Nielsen, grocery sales in the four [...]