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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May- 2021 -28 May
Retail NI welcomes top up grants
Retail NI has welcomed the commencement of the issuing of £72.3m in top up grants to Northern Irish businesses that remained open during the most recent restrictions. Over 13,000 trading businesses were unable to receive the most recent financial support, but their “trade and footfall” was still impacted as a…
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27 May
LCP acquires Trafford shopping parade for £9.5m
LCP has announced that it has signed a new deal to acquire a shopping parade in Trafford for almost £9.5m on behalf of Sheet Anchor Investments, one of the group’s managed companies. The centre has 21 retail units and is anchored including Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Costa Coffee, Iceland and Boots. In…
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27 May
Tempur Sealy to acquire Dreams for £335m
Tempur Sealy International, a global bedding provider, has announced an agreement to acquire specialty UK bed retailer Dreams for $475m (£335m). The deal, which will take place between Tempur and an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, is set to accelerate the group’s growth the the UK bedding marking. Acting as…
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27 May
Usdaw workers petition set for parliamentary debate
The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) has revealed that its petition to protect retail staff from violence, threats and abuse has accelerated and been timetabled for a parliamentary debate on Monday 7 June 2021. Launched by the unions general secretary Paddy Lillis, the petition attracted 104,000 signatures…
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27 May
Pets at Home sales top £1bn in FY21
Pets at Home has reported that group sales rose by 7.9% to £1.14bn in its financial report for the 52 weeks ended 25 March. The pet retailer also saw a 35.5% increase in statutory pre-tax profit to £116.4m over the period, with like-for-like sales also jumping 8.7%. For Pet at…
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26 May
700 Argos jobs at risk of ‘fire and rehire’
Unite Union has revealed that 700 of its members who work at Argos, which is part of the Sainsbury’s group, are “under threat” of “fire and rehire” as the company issues new contracts. Under the retailer’s plans, the affected workers will reportedly be required to pay increased pension contributions, lose…
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25 May
BRC calls on government to ‘accelerate use’ of green goods vehicles
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has written to the secretary of state for transport, Grant Shapps MP, calling on the government to act to encourage the take up of green technologies and reduce emissions from goods vehicles. According to the BRC, retailers are “making progress” to address this issue, but…
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25 May
Retail footfall edges up amid surge in evening shopping
UK retail footfall rose 1.1% last week from the week before, which was attributed to a surge in evening shopping, according to the latest results from Springboard. The research showed that footfall increased 2.4% in high streets and 1% in shopping centres whilst retail parks footfall dipped 1.7%. In addition,…
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25 May
Mothercare sales plunge 40% in FY21
Mothercare has revealed that sales in its unaudited full-year results are set to plunge 40% to £326m, reflecting the impact of the pandemic on the global markets in which its franchisees operate. The group said the impact of Covid-19 has “varied enormously” by market as countries have addressed the pandemic…
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25 May
Ted Baker completes bank refinancing after Covid halts results
Ted Baker said it has signed an extension to its revolving credit facility (RCF) with its existing lending syndicate. Under the new terms, the existing RCF of £108m maturing in September 2022 and restricted RCF of £25m maturing in January 2022, will be replaced by a new RCF of £90m…
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