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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Mar- 2022 -22 March
Weather boosts footfall across UK by 2.3%
Footfall rose by +2.3% last week from the week before across all UK retail destinations, with most of the rise driven by high streets where footfall rose by +4.2% versus just +0.5% in shopping centres and +0.1% in retail parks, according to retail experts Springboard. In coastal towns footfall rose…
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21 March
Boots to pay for employees’ HRT prescriptions in new menopause package
Boots has announced that it will cover the cost of its team members’ prescriptions for those able and wanting to take Hormone Replacement Treatment (HRT), effective from April 2022. Up to 80% of Boots’ team across the UK are made up of women, as part of its plan to create…
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21 March
Bira predicts strongest Mother’s Day in 2 years
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) has predicted the strongest Mother’s Day trading in over two years. Following the lifting of restrictions early this year, the head of Bira believes this will be the strongest trading period of the year so far as shoppers will be able to hit the…
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21 March
Boots bidders to begin discussions this week
Potential new owners of Boots are set to meet with the high street chemist chain’s management this week to discuss its £7bn upcoming sale, according to The Times. American private equity firms Apollo and Sycamore Partners are among the firms to have submitted non-binding bids for the Walgreens-owned group. They…
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16 March
Retail sales monitor shows ‘cause for optimism’, Bira says
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) has said there is “cause for optimism” after the recent BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor for February 2022 which revealed that UK retail sales increased 2.7% on a Like-for-like basis from February 2021. According to the BRC the performance comes on top of an improved…
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11 March
Sook opens second retail site on South Molton Street
Sook, a pay-by-the-hour adaptable space provider, has opened a second site on South Molton Street, and extended its partnership with central London landlord Grosvenor by three years. Sook initially partnered with Grosvenor in 2020, opening 42 South Molton Street to provide an “affordable, flexible and digitally-connected space for any brand…
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8 March
Consumer spending surges 13.7% in February
Consumer card spending grew year-on-year by 13.7% in February, the highest growth since November 2021, as the economy reopened following the lifting of Plan B restrictions and work-from-home guidance. Data from Barclaycard revealed that spending on essential items rose 12% in February, driven by an 11.2% rise in fuel prices…
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7 March
Retailers record 12th month of consecutive sales growth
The retail sector has recorded its 12th consecutive month of positive trading with total like-for-like sales, combined in-store and online, increasing year-on-year by 49.6% in February from a base of -3.1% when the country was in full lockdown. According to BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker (HSST), total like-for-like sales saw…
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7 March
Bira announces launch of Neartoo online trading platform
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) has announced the official public launch of its new online trading site Neartoo. The website, which launches on Monday 7 March, is designed to “help stores in hard hit High Streets recover from the pandemic”. The platform allows shoppers to find out what they…
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3 March
Amazon to shutter all bookshops and 4-star stores
Amazon is set to shutter all 68 of its bookshops, 4-star stores and Amazon pop-ups across the US and UK in a bid to further concentrate on its growing grocery offering. Closure dates of the bricks-and-mortar sites will reportedly vary by location and it is currently unknown how many roles…
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