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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Sep- 2018 -7 September
Argos launches UK-first Google voice shopping service
Argos has become the first company in the UK to offer a voice shopping service for customers that use Google Home devices. The catalogue retailer said the technology will allow around 20,000 to reserve Argos products using voice technology across 850 of its stores. As well as placing reservations with…
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5 September
Electric bikes speed up Halfords sales
Halfords has announced that increased demand for electric bikes has helped the company to achieve a like-for-like sales increase of 2.8% over the 20 weeks leading up to 17 August. Shares rose by 7% this morning following the announcement, bringing the car part retailer’s total value up £653m. The figures…
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5 September
Inditex to sell all its brands online worldwide by 2020
Inditex, the Spanish parent company behind brands such as Zara and Pull&Bear, has announced that it will sell products from all of its brands online around the world by 2020, even in countries where it doesn’t have stores. Pablo Isla, Inditex chairman and CEO, made the announcement during a…
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4 September
Retail sales growth slows during August
UK retail sales growth continued to slow during August as the summer boost comes to an end, according to figures from the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor. In August, UK retail sales increased by 0.2% on a like-for-like basis compared with the same period the previous year. On a total basis,…
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4 September
Footfall ‘better than expected’ in August
Footfall fell by 4.1% in August compared with the same month last year, according to the Ipsos retail footfall tracker. Despite the drop, analysts described footfall levels as “better than expected” as the pace of year-on-year footfall decline slowed in August. Ipsos said this might be down to the success…
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3 September
Boden reports strong sales increase of 13%
Lifestyle retailer Boden has reported a 13% rise in sales for the year ending December 2017 due to an increase in overseas customers. This increase in sales accounted for £347.1m growth.The company also saw its pre-tax profit rise to £27.3m from £26.2m; an increase of 4%. Boden attributed its strong…
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3 September
Footasylum shares drop by 50% as company warns of losses
Footasylum has this morning issued a profit warning that said it expects to report lower than expected revenue and a loss in EBITDA. Shares in the company dropped by 50% this morning (3 September) following the warning. The footwear retailer blamed “weak consumer sentiment on the high street” for the…
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Aug- 2018 -31 August
UK consumer confidence jumps three points in August to -7
The GfK’s long-running consumer confidence index showed an increased of three points to -7 in August 2018. The index which measures changes in personal finances during the last 12 months has also increased by three points this month to +4, two points higher compared with the same period time last…
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31 August
Coca-Cola to acquire Costa Coffee from Whitbread for £3.9bn
Coca-Cola is to buy the coffee chain Costa from Whitbread in a £3.9bn deal. Whitbread, which acquired the brand in 1995 for £19m when it had only 39 outlets, had intended to spin off the chain as a separate business but the transaction was “unanimously agreed” by the Whitbread board…
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30 August
Hot September could cost retailers £320m in sales
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said a hot September could cost retailers £320m in sales, with non-food retailers losing £80m per week. Based on Met Office figures, the new BRC research found a “clear relationship” between weather and retail sales. The report says that weather influences sales most between…
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