News
The latest news, updates and analysis on the the UK retail industry. Covering every segment of the market, Retail Sector’s business journalists keep you in the picture.
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Aug- 2018 -14 August
42 Homebase stores to face the axe
DIY retailer Homebase has announced the closure of 42 stores, resulting in around 1,500 redundancies. The DIY chain has already closed 17 stores after it was bought out by restructuring experts Hilco for £1 in May, and is said to be filing for a CVA. Insolvency advisors Alvarez & Marsal…
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14 August
High street job losses ‘cost British economy £1.5bn’
New research has found that high street job losses have cost the British economy £1.5bn, as the number of lost jobs exceeds 30,000. Figures from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) include those facing imminent redundancy alongside those who have already lost their jobs, adding up to £1.5bn in lost GDP.…
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14 August
Sainsbury’s trials ‘till-free shopping’ at south London store
Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s is trialling a new ‘scan, pay and go’ scheme at its Clapham North Station Local store, enabling customers to pay for products using only their smartphone. Customers at the trial supermarket will be able to pay for their items from anywhere in the shop, instead of a…
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14 August
Mike Ashley plans to keep 80% of House of Fraser stores open
Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley has vowed to keep 80% of House of Fraser’s stores open, after he saved the department store chain from administration in a £90m buyout last week (Friday 10 August). When the department store entered a CVA in June, it planned to shut 31 of its…
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14 August
Asda, Argos, Sainsbury’s and M&S sign up for ‘Purple Tuesday’
‘Purple Tuesday’, the UK’s first day dedicated to ‘accessible’ shopping, will take place on 13 November and will see retailers such as Asda, Argos and Sainsbury’s introduce new measures to make the shopping experience more inclusive for disabled customers. The initiative is being coordinated by the disability organisation Purple and…
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13 August
Lush to offer free coffee
Cosmetics retailer Lush is to offer free coffee in an attempt to cut down on single use coffee cups. Customers in Lush’s Soho store will be eligible for the coffee if they bring along a reusable cup between 7am and 3pm in the four weeks commencing 14 August. The coffees…
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13 August
Retail footfall down 0.8%, shopping centres continue to suffer
Retail footfall fell by 0.8% in July when compared to the same time last year, despite the high street again seeing a slight rise. The figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Springboard show that high street footfall increased by 0.3% which was the third consecutive month of growth.…
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13 August
Household spending drops 0.9% in July
Household spending dropped 0.9% in July due to “disappointing growth” in real earnings, according to Visas’ UK Consumer Spending Index. The quickest fall in spend was registered in retail categories, decreasing by 1.2% year-on-year, and ecommerce expenditure fell by 0.5% after a marginal rise during June (0.4%). According to the…
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13 August
Amazon told to clarify ‘one-day’ delivery claims
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told Amazon to clarify its ‘one-day’ delivery claims for Prime customers, after the regulatory body called it “misleading”. Around 270 customers reported not receiving their items until after the next day. The ASA said customers were “likely to understand that, so long as they…
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13 August
Ex-BHS staff to receive pension payouts
Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), a specialist insurer of defined benefit pension funds, has completed a full pension insurance buyout of the BHS2 Pension Scheme. This buyout will cover £800m of the defunct retailer’s liabilities and all of the approximately 9,000 members of the BHS2 Scheme. The pension obligations of the…
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