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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Apr- 2018 -24 April
300 jobs lost as East poised to stop trading next week
Fashion retailer East is to stop trading next week after administrators were unable to find a buyer, with 300 employees to be made redundant. According to reports, East will cease trading on 4 May after administrators at FRP Advisory were unable to find a buyer despite receiving at least three…
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24 April
Co-op’s £143m takeover of Nisa cleared by CMA
The Co-op’s £143m takeover of Nisa approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), subject to a court sanction on May 4. The Nisa board voted in favour of the proposal by Co-Op in November 2017 and the deal is hoped to be completed by 8 May. In a joint…
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23 April
Shop that sold illegal tobacco ‘wants its licence back’
A shop that was banned from selling tobacco and alcohol is reapplying for a new licence, it has been reported. Owner Nzar Jabar Kadir’s bid has been opposed by local authorities who cite a massive hive of criminal activity around the shop and fear that allowing it to sell alcohol…
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20 April
Bonmarché expects profit to meet expectations despite sales drop
Bonmarché has announced that for the 52 weeks to the 31 March in store like-for-like sales were down by 4.5% caused by a 11% drop in sales in Q4. However the women’s retailer said that it still expects full year profits to “be in line with expectations”. Online sales experienced…
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19 April
Debenhams profits plummet by 84%
Debenhams has announced that its pre-tax profits fell by 84% to £13.5m after the ‘Beast from the East’ temporarily closed 100 stores. The department chain also saw its like-for-like sales fall by 2.2% for the 26 weeks to 3 March, attributed to a “challenging UK market background”. Revenue also decreased…
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17 April
Primark posts ‘remarkable’ 4% rise in profits
Associated British Foods (ABF), the parent company of fashion retailer Primark, has posted a 1% increase in profit for the first half of the year to £648m. This increase was driven by a 4% rise in operating profit at Primark despite facing unseasonable weather in its key European markets. …
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16 April
High street collapse down to higher business rates, says Colliers
Fifteen major retailers or restaurant groups have gone into CVA or administration in the twelve months since the April 2017 Business Rates Revaluation, according to Colliers International, the global commercial real estate agency and consultancy. Ten of those have happened since the beginning of this year – in the last…
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16 April
March retail footfall sees steepest decline in eight years
Footfall in March decreased by 6%, compared with the positive rate of 1.3% seen in March 2017. There was no growth in footfall for any UK regions, and the most notable declines (year-on-year) were seen in Greater London, -7.5%, the South East, -6.5%, and in the East Midlands, -5.6%. Growth…
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16 April
Debenhams expected to post big dent in half-year profits
Analyst consensus expects Debenhams to report a large decrease in its profits when it publishes its half-year results next week. Figures estimate interim pre-tax profits to fall within a range of £42m-£47m and almost 50% decrease from £87.7m from the same period last year. Like-for-like sales are also expected to…
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13 April
Low-skilled jobs rebadged as apprenticeships by firms, says report
Employers are relabelling low-quality, low skilled and and often low-wage roles as ‘apprenticeships’, according to a new report. As part of the Government’s wider package of reforms to apprenticeships, groups of employers have come together to write the new ‘apprenticeship standards’. Some employers have used this opportunity to generate high-quality…
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