High Street
The latest news, updates and analysis on the the British High Street and UK retail industry. Sign up to the Daily Briefing and let Retail Sector’s business journalists keep you in the picture.
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Aug- 2018 -17 August
Marks and Spencer replaces switchboard staff with AI
Marks and Spencer will be replacing its call centre employees with AI technology, cloud communications platform Twilio has announced. The technology will be delivered by Twilio across 640 M&S stores and 13 UK-based contact centre hubs. The project to migrate the retail chain’s switchboard operation took less than six months…
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16 August
Philip Day eyeing House of Fraser stores
Philip Day, the owner of Edinburgh Woollen Mill is reportedly in talks with landlord groups regarding a takeover of several House of Fraser stores. Day is talking to 10 to 15 landlords with a view to running them as Days Department Stores according to Drapers. Rents and leases on House of…
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15 August
Fat Face sales jump up 7.4%
Clothing retailer Fat Face has announced it has seen an overall sales rise of 7.4% to £238.4m in the 52 weeks to 2 June. Like-for-like growth also rose 4.9% across the same period, despite the company’s CEO Anthony Thompson warning in the company’s last financial update that the UK retail…
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15 August
Superdrug launches in-store Botox and filler service
High street health and beauty store Superdrug has launched an in-store Botox and fillers service at its flagship on the Strand in London. It is the first high street store to offer such a service and the scheme launched in conjunction with its Skin Renew Service. The service was established…
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15 August
Former Co-op director claims she was fired over equal pay claim
The former HR director of the Co-op, Sam Walker, has claimed she was fired from the company after raising an equal pay claim three times with then CEO Richard Pennycook. According to a report by The Guardian Walker has warned that the retailer could be paying its male and female…
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14 August
High street job losses ‘cost British economy £1.5bn’
New research has found that high street job losses have cost the British economy £1.5bn, as the number of lost jobs exceeds 30,000. Figures from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) include those facing imminent redundancy alongside those who have already lost their jobs, adding up to £1.5bn in lost GDP.…
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14 August
Asda, Argos, Sainsbury’s and M&S sign up for ‘Purple Tuesday’
‘Purple Tuesday’, the UK’s first day dedicated to ‘accessible’ shopping, will take place on 13 November and will see retailers such as Asda, Argos and Sainsbury’s introduce new measures to make the shopping experience more inclusive for disabled customers. The initiative is being coordinated by the disability organisation Purple and…
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13 August
Retail footfall down 0.8%, shopping centres continue to suffer
Retail footfall fell by 0.8% in July when compared to the same time last year, despite the high street again seeing a slight rise. The figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Springboard show that high street footfall increased by 0.3% which was the third consecutive month of growth.…
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13 August
Ex-BHS staff to receive pension payouts
Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), a specialist insurer of defined benefit pension funds, has completed a full pension insurance buyout of the BHS2 Pension Scheme. This buyout will cover £800m of the defunct retailer’s liabilities and all of the approximately 9,000 members of the BHS2 Scheme. The pension obligations of the…
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10 August
Arcadia terminates contract with Chinese partner Shangpin
Philip Green, owner of the Arcadia retail empire, has scrapped an expansion deal with Chinese franchise partner, Shangpin, that would have seen 80 stores open in the country. A spokesperson for Topshop Topman said the groups “have reached a mutual agreement to an early termination”, and have “enjoyed a successful…
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