Coronavirus
Coronavirus covers the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK retail industry. This section explores how retailers have adapted to shifts in consumer behaviour, operational disruption, and regulatory change. Retail Sector’s Coronavirus coverage includes news, analysis, and commentary on supply chain challenges, workforce management, financial recovery, and digital transformation, providing retail professionals with insight into how the sector continues to rebuild and evolve in the wake of the pandemic.
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Jun- 2020 -30 June
Reopening is ‘no magic bullet’ for retail, says BRC
Reopening is “no magic bullet” for retail, the British Retail Consortium has warned despite UK footfall improving since lockdown restrictions were lifted earlier this month. The BRC’s footfall tracker found that UK footfall decreased 53.4% year-on-year during the second week of reopening in England and NI. This is compared to…
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29 June
H&M half-year sales slump amid Covid-19 pandemic
Fashion retailer H&M has reported a 23% decrease in net sales to SEK 83,612bn (£7.2bn) for the half-year period ended 31 May 2020. The group said it was “significantly negatively affected” by the Covid-19 situation, with pre-tax losses amounting to SEK 3,063bn (£265m) during the H1 period. H&Ms net sales…
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26 June
Intu admits appointment of administrators ‘likely’
Shopping centre owner Intu has admitted that it has so far failed in reaching standstill agreements with landlords and therefore is “likely” to appoint administrators. On 23 June 2020, Intu provided an update on discussions with key stakeholders to progress its standstill strategy ahead of the revolving credit facility covenant…
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24 June
Amazon launches small business accelerator to support over 200,000 small retailers
Amazon and Enterprise Nation, the small business support network, have launched the ‘Amazon Small Business Accelerator’, a major support package for more than 200,000 small businesses and startups across the UK. In response to Covid-19 and the “impact of the economic lockdown on small businesses”, the Amazon Small Business Accelerator…
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24 June
Naked Wines reports £200m revenues in FY results
Naked Wines has reported a 14% increase in revenues to £203m for the full-year period ended 30 March, up from £178.4m the previous year. The company also revealed that losses before tax also reduced to £5.4m, compared with £10m in 2019. Naked Wines said the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic…
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23 June
PM confirms relaxation of two-metre social distancing rule
Boris Johnson has announced a reduction in the two-metre social distancing rule. In a speech in parliament this afternoon, the PM said that while maintaining at least a two-metre distance is still “recommended where possible”, the official guidance will be updated to recommend “one-metre-plus” where necessary, if “mitigations” such as…
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23 June
UK retail transactions grew by 60% last week, Barclaycard finds
By last week an additional 60% of Barclaycard’s customers had returned to trading and taking payments compared to the first week of April, as lockdown restrictions continued to ease. According to Barclaycard, comparing last week to the week prior – commencing 7 June – it found there was a 12%…
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23 June
Shoe Zone to make redundancies as 20 shops close
Footwear retailer Shoe Zone has revealed that 20 of its stores will not open post-lockdown, resulting in a number of its staff being made redundant. The news comes after the company reported a loss of £2.5m for the 26 weeks to 4 April 2020, compared with a profit of £1m…
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22 June
Chancellor mulls VAT cut and could follow up with autumn tax rises
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering cutting VAT in order to help stimulate the economy but could follow the move up with a set of Autumn tax rises. According to the Financial Times, Sunak is planning deferred tax rises and cuts to public spending in his autumn Budget as a follow up to further stimulus…
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22 June
Bira welcomes extension of government protection scheme
Bira has “welcomed” the Government’s decision to extend protection for businesses from aggressive debt collection until September. The extended measures will prevent struggling retailers from being evicted with the current protection originally due to expire on June 30. The association said the decision was made by the Government after Bira…
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