What’s happening in retail & with brands – trends for week ending 18th November 2011
Company results:
• Burberry have reported a 26% increase in adjusted pre-tax profit to £161.6m for the 6 months to 30 September 2011. Sales increased by 29% to £830m for the same period.
• Dwell have reported an EBITDA of £1.1m for the year to 28 January 2011. Turnover increased to £33.4m from £24.9m the previous year.
• John Lewis have reported a 0.8% decline in sales (including VAT) for the week ending 12 November 2011. Fashion and Electricals & Home Technology sales declined by 0.8% and 1.7% respectively. Home sales increased by 0.2% while sales at johnlewis.com increased by 14.1%.
• Liberty have reported a 16% increase in sales for the 6 months to 31 July 2011. (Source: Retail Week)
• Ted Baker have reported a 7.8% increase in group sales for the 13 weeks to 12 November 2011. (Source: Retail Week)
Clothing, Footwear & Accessories:
• Aurora have plans to expand the trial of their mobile point of sale systems by replacing them with ipads in 23 of their stores by Christmas.
• Debenhams have announced that they are to cut the prices on many of their products, in-store and online, by up to 40%. The move will amount to £200m worth of savings for their customers. (Source: Retail Bulletin)
• It is reported that Fabindia, the Indian clothing retailer, has increased it’s stake in East from 25% to 62.5%. (Source: Verdict)
• Go Outdoors have appointed Dan Quinn as Commercial Director.
• H&M have launched an exclusive collection of clothing designed by the fashion house Versace.
• It is reported that Lillian Tan has announced that she will step down as Chief Executive of Laura Ashley in January 2012. Ms Tan will be replaced by returning former Chief Executive, Ng Kwan Cheong.
• TJ Hughes have plans to recruit 120 temporary Christmas staff across their six stores.
• Snow + Rock have appointed David Kohn as Head of Multichannel.
Electrical & Entertainment:
• Clinton Cards have launched their first TV advert as part of their plans to market their exclusive interactive cards for the festive season.
• HMV have opened a new trial store at One New Change in London, which is to sell predominantly technology products. The company plan to add a second store before Christmas and if successful, will roll out the format more extensively under the HMV Techshop banner.
• Phones 4u has made wi-fi available for free in all of its UK stores.
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment supported by HMV’s mobile application have launched their first virtual shop in the UK. Customers can buy Blu-ray discs and DVDs by reading QR Codes found on posters at bus stops. (Source: Retail Bulletin)
Food & Drink:
• Asda have launched a new mobile application which allows customers to buy groceries online and compare the price of their shopping to other retailers using an iPhone. (Source: Retail Week)
• It is reported that Morrisons are to offer up to £100m of savings to their customers over the Christmas period. (Source: Verdict)
• Ocado have launched an application for the Blackberry mobile phone in order to boost their online sales.
• It is reported that The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled Tesco’s Price Check scheme as misleading. The ASA upheld the complaints received about the scheme as it failed to mention that the “double the difference” incentive had a maximum refund value of £20. (Source: The Guardian)
• Simon Uwins, Chief Marketing Officer Tesco Fresh & Easy, has left the company to pursue other interests.
• Waitrose have appointed Rob Collins as Retail Director.
“The Office of National Statistics’ (ONS) Retail Sales figures for October have revealed that retail sales volumes increased by 0.9% in October 2011 compared to 2010, whilst the value of retail sales increased by 5.4%. Last week, fashion sales performed relatively well, with figures coming in only just down on last year with the positive momentum generated last week continuing for many”.
Household:
• It is reported that Bibby Line Group have acquired the remaining 49% stake in Costcutter. (Source: Retail Gazette)
• National Geographic have plans to relocate their London flagship store from Regent Street to Knightsbridge.
• Poundland have plans to recruit 2,000 temporary staff to work in their stores over the Christmas period.
• Poundworld have plans to launch an exclusive transactional website for their wholesale business next year. The site will be aimed at market traders and small retailers. (Source: Retail Week)
• QD Stores have plans to open pop-up stores in order to deal with the shortage of larger store space available in key regions.
• Sainsbury’s have plans to open their first standalone pharmacy, in collaboration with Healthcare at Home, at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough by early 2012.
Courtesy of ‘The Thinker‘
