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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May- 2022 -24 May
Harrods appoints chief financial officer
Harrods has appointed Tim Parker as its new chief financial officer for the group. He joins Harrods following 10 years at Jardin Matheson, where he held a range of senior finance leadership positions across Hong Kong and Malaysia for the diversified Asia-focussed group. Originally qualifying as an accountant with PwC…
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23 May
Sustainable In-Store Packing: A Critical Trend in Retail
Forrester’s recent predictions confirm a trend that we are all seeing, namely the importance of the circular economy to retail businesses. They also highlight growing expectations related to the handling of customer returns. Both of these issues speak directly to brand reputation and customer experience as key factors in years…
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23 May
Ted Baker selects preferred bidder as Sycamore backs out
Ted Baker has announced it has selected a preferred counterparty to buy the business as US Private equity firm, Sycamore, has officially backed out of acquiring the fashion retailer. The company said it is moving forward into a process of confirmatory due diligence, which is likely to take several weeks. …
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23 May
Kingfisher sales drop despite supply pressures easing
Kingfisher has announced its like-for-like sales dropped 5.4% to £3.2bn in the three months ended 30 April 2022 (Q1), although this is up 16.2% from pre-pandemic levels as inflationary and supply chain pressures have eased. In the UK and Ireland, total sales fell 14.1% in Q1, but increased 16.7% on…
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23 May
Barclay Family to revive Very Group IPO plans
The owners of the Very Group, the Barclay family, are reportedly set to revive plans to float the company next year after initially postponing the idea due to unfavourable market conditions. According to The Sunday Times, the Barclay Family, which values the company at around £4bn, has offered incentive packages…
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23 May
Moonpig to acquire Buyagift for £124m
Moonpig Group has announced the proposed acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Buyagift, the gift experiences platform, for cash consideration of £124m. The company said that the acquisition will “unlock the £6bn UK gift experiences segment” of the £57bn total addressable gifting market. Buyagift has over 4,400 experience…
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20 May
Sainsbury’s to remove Russian diesel from petrol stations
Sainsbury’s has pledged to stop selling Russian diesel from its petrol stations by the end of 2022, following calls from its customers, according to the Evening Standard. The supermarket confirmed the commitment on Thursday (19 May) to halt respective sales across its 315 petrol forecourts, in line with the UK’s…
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20 May
The Works warns of trading slowdown despite ‘strong’ FY22
Arts and crafts and book retailer The Works has warned it has experienced a slight slowdown in recent trading due to the cost of living crisis, despite reporting a “strong” FY22 performance. In a trading update for the 52 weeks ended 1 May 2022, the retailer revealed it was trading…
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20 May
THG rejects £2bn bid as Nick Candy eyes takeover
THG announced it has rejected a takeover bid of over £2bn from the investment companies Belerion Capital Group Limited (Belerion) and King Street Capital Management L.P. (King Street). The announcement comes as the board confirms it is in the early stages of considering a possible offer from Nick Candy, owner…
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20 May
Retail sales rise by 1.4% in April
Retail sales volumes rose by 1.4% in April 2022 following a fall of 1.2% in March 2022, with sales volumes 4.1% above their pre-coronavirus February 2020 levels. In the three months to April 2022, sales volumes fell by 0.3% when compared with the previous three months; this continues the downward…
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