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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Jun- 2021 -18 June
Sports Direct flagship store reopens following £10m refurbishment
Sports Direct has announced it will be reopening its flagship store in Oxford Street following a £10m refurbishment. The store recently underwent a complete overhaul with a modern, innovative, and sleek new look that brings the brand’s elevation strategy and fresh approach to the retail space. The store, which first…
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18 June
Over a quarter of all UK payments now contactless
UK Finance, the trade association for the country’s banking and financial services sector, has revealed that more than a quarter of all UK payments are now contactless. The body’s 2021 Payment Markets Report revealed that the number of contactless payments made in the UK increased by 12% to 9.6 billion…
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17 June
Oxford Circus to be transformed into ‘pedestrian piazzas’
Oxford Circus will be transformed into two, “pedestrian-friendly piazzas” as part of plans unveiled by Westminster City Council and The Crown Estate to revive Oxford Street and the wider district. The organisations said that work will begin on the area later this year, with the reconstruction set to provide “significant…
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16 June
Boohoo opens talks for Debenhams store return
Boohoo is reportedly in talks to open a Debenhams store in a bid to land deals with a number of beauty brands. According to the Times, “one store and one store only” will be opened to cater for those brands that would only supply when there is a physical retail…
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11 June
Bira calls for extension of Gov’s TCR scheme
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) is calling for an extension in the government’s Trade Credit Reinsurance (TCR) scheme. CEO of Bira, Andrew Goodacre said the removal of the scheme as planned on June 30, 2021, could “not come at a worse time for independent retailers”. In May, the government…
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10 June
Card Factory swings to £16.4m loss in 2020
Card Factory has reported a pre-tax loss of £16.4m for the full-year ending 31 January 2021, down from £65.2m profit the previous year, as the company continued to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing lockdowns. Revenue plummeted 36.9% to £285.1m in the period, down from £451.5m in 2020,…
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9 June
May sees online retail sales fall 9.1%, latest data reveals
Online retail sales fell 9.1% year-on-year last month compared with 2020 which saw a growth of 61% according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. Despite this, when measured against May 2019’s pre-pandemic levels, last month’s figures represent an overall 46% increase in sales volume. At a category level,…
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8 June
MaxiSaver reveals store expansion plans
MaxiSaver, a value goods retailer, has revealed its intentions to expand across England with another 20 stores this year. The strategy of portfolio extension is set to create “hundreds of jobs” from Bedford in the south to Sheffield in the north. A provider of discount products from areas that span…
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8 June
Half term and warm weather boosts footfall
Footfall across UK retail destinations rose by 11.6% last week from the week before, including a 17.4% increase in high streets, according to the latest figures from Springboard. Across last week Springboard also found a 8.7% increase in footfall in shopping centres and a 2.3% increase in retail parks. In…
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8 June
Gov launches new workers’ rights watchdog to clamp down on abuse
The department for business, energy and industrial strategy has announced that a new watchdog will be created to protect the rights of UK workers. The news follows several calls from trade bodies which have been advocating for workers’ protective rights since the pandemic saw an 80% spike in verbal abuse.…
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