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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Feb- 2024 -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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16 February
Farfetch CEO to step down following Coupang rescue deal
Farfetch founder and CEO Jose Neves is reportedly stepping down from the company following the sale of the business to South-Korean e-commerce company Coupang, according to The Telegraph. According to an internal memo sent to the staff on Thursday, Neves will remain at the company in a consultancy role and…
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16 February
Retail sales jump 3.4% giving optimism despite recession
Retail sales in the UK jumped 3.4% in January 2024 after falling 3.2% in December, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. This is the biggest rise in retail sales since April 2021 when the UK had just emerged from the third covid lockdown. The price of goods…
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16 February
John Lewis bolsters board and audit committee
John Lewis Partnership has announced the appointment of Clare Swindell to its board of directors and Jane Hanson CBE as an independent external member of the audit and risk committee. Swindell was most recently the co-chief executive for National Lottery operator Camelot, while Hanson has over 30 years of experience…
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15 February
Today’s news in brief-15/2/24
The UK has entered a technical recession as its GDP contracted by 0.3% in the final quarter of 2023. This marks the first recession since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The decline in GDP was larger than expected, with key sectors like manufacturing, construction, and wholesale experiencing significant downturns.…
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15 February
Lidl switches to electronic shelf labelling
Lidl GB has announced it is changing how it displays prices , following a successful trial of electronic shelf labelling in over 35 locations. The move is estimated to save over 206 tonnes of carbon annually through paper and packaging reductions, while ink usage will also be drastically minimised. Since…
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15 February
Clacton Shopping Village marks ‘record-breaking’ 2023 trading
Clacton Shopping Village in Essex has experienced a “record-breaking” 2023 after welcoming a new high of 1.6 million shoppers and sales of £21m for the first time. The shopping destination, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, saw a record £630k taken in the week leading up to Christmas when…
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15 February
Jeff Bezos sells over $4bn of shares in Amazon
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has recently sold more than $4bn (£3.2bn) of his shares in the company, according to new regulatory filings in the US. In this month alone, he has sold 24 million Amazon shares, having last sold Amazon shares in 2021. It comes as Amazon share prices reached…
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15 February
Kingfisher unveils new apprenticeship target for 2030
Kingfisher, the international home improvement retailer, has announced a new target for 20,000 colleagues to have completed an apprenticeship, traineeship or formal qualification by 2030. The announcement comes after Kingfisher exceeded its current learning ambition two years early, with colleagues completing over 6.6 million skills for life learning hours since…
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15 February
UK enters technical recession as GDP contracts 0.3% in Q4
The UK fell into a technical recession after gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3% in the final three months of 2023, according to the ONS latest report. The news marks the first time the UK has entered a recession since the first half of 2020, when the initial Covid-19…
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