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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Jul- 2018 -3 July
Personal information of job applicants leaked in Costa Coffee data breach
The parent company of Costa Coffee, Whitbread, has been the subject of a data breach which has seen personal information of job candidates exposed. A cyber attack was carried out on Whitbread’s recruitment agency, PageUp, potentially leaving data including home address, email address, telephone number, maiden name, date of birth,…
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2 July
Estate agents join high street casualties as insolvencies rise
Around 153 estate agents have gone insolvent in the last year, up from 148 the year before, according to a new report. Accountancy firm Moore Stephens found that as the online estate agency market continues to grow, firms such as Hatched, Rightmove, Yopa and Zoopla have squeezed high street rivals.…
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2 July
Philip Green’s company fails to block BHS audit report
The parent company of Philip Green’s Arcadia retail empire, Taveta Investments, has failed to impose an injunction on the publication of BHS’ audit reports. It was seeking an interim injunction before a judicial review of the report, but the High Court ruled in favour of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)…
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2 July
Retail job losses make up almost half of 50,000 lost this year
Almost half of the 50,000 jobs lost in the UK this year have been in the retail sector, new figures suggest. Data from the Press Association shows that around 50,000 have seen their jobs cut or have had their positions threatened during the first half of the year, while additional…
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Jun- 2018 -29 June
Boots shares plunge 10% following Amazon medicine service acquisition
Shares in the parent company of pharmacy chain Boots, Walgreens Boots Alliance, have plummeted by 10% this morning following news that Amazon has acquired medicine delivery company Pillpack. The American startup made $100m last year and will now see Amazon take over late next year, with the price of the…
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29 June
H&M profits plunge 22% prompting price cuts
H&M has reported a 22% drop in profits before taxation for the first half of the year, with its CEO saying he expects a “tough first half-year”. Profits fell to 6bn Swedish krona (£510m) and net sales were almost flat at 51.98bn krona (£441m). Overall, its sales for 2018 Q1…
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27 June
City centres ‘must break reliance’ on retail, says think tank
Too many city centres across England and Wales are over-dependent on retail, and must swap shops for offices, housing and public spaces, according to a new report. Research published by the think tank Centre for Cities with support from Capita, examined for the composition of commercial space in UK cities…
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27 June
Costa Coffee sales dip 2% in Q1
Coffee chain Costa has reported a fall in like-for-like sales at the start of the year, blaming a lack of shoppers on the high street. Although total UK sales grew by 5.2% due to new store openings, according to Costa owner Whitbread, the UK’s biggest coffee chain revealed a 2%…
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26 June
Carpetright woes as CVA activity results in £70.5m loss
Carpetright has reported a £70.5m loss before tax as a result of the cost and accounting impacts of the group’s restructuring activity. Total group revenue decreased by 3.0% to £443.8m and like-for-like sales for the full year declined by 3.6%, with the first eight weeks of the new financial year…
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26 June
EXCLUSIVE: Mattressman accounts ‘disaster’
Mattressman has revealed that it entered a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) due to “inaccurate management accounts”, which led the company to believe it was profitable in Q1 and Q2 of 2017, Retail Sector can reveal. However in March this year it was found that it was losing money during that…
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