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 -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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13 April
Hobbycraft appoints Tesco CEO as chairman
Arts and crafts retailer Hobbycraft has has appointed Tesco UK CEO Matt Davies as its new chairman. Davies is currently CEO of Tesco’s UK and Irish business, but will step down at the end of April following its merger with Booker. He succeeds Archie Norman, who is leaving after over…
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12 April
WHSmith profits dip as high street arm struggles
WHSmith has reported a dip in its profits for the six months ending February 28, as its high street trading profit fell by 6%. The company saw a 1% fall in group pre-tax profits to £82m down from £83m in 2017. However WHSmith’s 700 travel stores, located in airports, railways…
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12 April
Mothercare reports drop in Q4 like-for-like sales
Embattled retailer Mothercare has revealed its UK like-for-like sales declined by 2.8% in the group’s Q4 results. However, online sales grew by 2.1%, with website sales growing by 7.2%. Online sales within the period represented 49% of UK sales, bringing the fiscal year to 43%. International retail sales were 3.7%…
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12 April
Carpetright to close nearly a quarter of stores, affecting 300 jobs
Carpetright is preparing to close nearly a quarter of its 300 stores in a restructuring plan as it struggles to avoid administration. Today (12 April) the company released a statement saying it had entered a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA), which if approved, would lead to the closure of 92 outlets…
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