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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Feb- 2024 -29 February
Central Co-op calls on gov to address ‘alarming rise’ in retail crime
Central Co-op is encouraging its members and customers to write to their local MPs and advocate for legislative reform that will help to criminalise assaults on shopworkers. It comes as the British Retail Consortium (BRC) recently reported that incidents of violence and abuse in retail environments have increased to over…
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28 February
UK’s largest retailers ‘greener but less focused on DE&I’, study finds
The UK’s largest retailers are stepping up their efforts to become greener but losing focus on diversity and inclusion initiatives and cyber security, national law firm Irwin Mitchell’s new Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report has revealed. Irwin Mitchell has analysed the annual reports of the retailers in the FTSE…
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26 February
Next mulls Body Shop rescue bid
Next has reportedly approached administrators with plans to acquire some of The Body Shop’s assets, according to Sky News. The news comes shortly after The Body Shop collapsed into administration, with administrators at FRP Advisory announcing they expected to close nearly half of The Body Shop’s 198 stores at the…
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22 February
Taxpayers to foot bill for Body Shop redundancies
Taxpayers are set to pay millions of pounds to laid off staff at The Body Shop as the restructuring of the collapsed chain gets underway, The Telegraph has reported. Employees who have lost their jobs have reportedly been told to make claims through the government-backed redundancy payments service, which is…
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16 February
NWEC calls for return to tax-free shopping as tourist spending gap widens
The New West End Company (NWEC) has called for the return of tax-free shopping as the gap between the number of international visitors in London and the spending associated with them widened in the final quarter of last year. According to the latest figures released by NWEC, despite a recovery…
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15 February
Poundland to refurb 150 stores
Poundland has announced that it is set to commence refurbishments on 150 stores set to be completed by August this year. The ‘Project Evo’ transformations will see each of the stores get a top-to-bottom refresh to bring them up to date. The refresh will be the first significant investment in…
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14 February
Intimissimi opens new store on Kensington High Street
Oniverse Group, formerly known as Calzedonia Group, has announced the expansion of the Intimissimi brand in the UK with the opening of a new store on Kensington High Street, West London. The new store, which is located at 123a Kensington High Street W8 5SF, joins the existing eight locations within…
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13 February
Wet weather sees footfall slump 5.2%
Heavy rain and snow across some parts of the UK saw footfall drop 5.2% across all retail destinations when compared with the previous year, according to the latest data from MRI Springboard. Footfall declined 7.9% in high streets with many office workers choosing to work from home where possible, with…
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9 February
EE opens new Gateshead store amid £6m investment
EE has announced the opening of its latest Experience store in Gateshead, the fourth of 10 planned openings. The announcement comes as EE commits to investing £6m in the British high street in the next 12 months. The company has launched new store formats including its flagship Studio store in…
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9 February
Waterstones pre-tax profits plummet amid tech issue
Waterstones revealed that pre-tax profits fell to £11.2m in the year ending 29 April 2023 from £50.6m reported last year, as a technical issue led to a backlog of orders from bookshops. Waterstones has attributed its performance to a technical issue at its central distribution, following the introduction of a…
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