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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Nov- 2018 -20 November
Twitter recruits man named John Lewis for #NotARetailStore advert
Twitter has launched a Christmas advert featuring a man named John Lewis who is often mistaken for the retailer. Lewis receives over 50,000 tweets per year from customers hoping to reach John Lewis and Partners customer service team which uses the Twitter handle @jlandpcustserv as opposed to Lewis who uses…
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19 November
Nissan chairman arrested over allegations of ‘serious misconduct’
Carmaker Nissan’s chairman Carlos Ghosn has been arrested over allegations of “serious misconduct” and other “significant acts”, including personal use of company assets. An investigation revealed that over many years both Ghosn and representative director Greg Kelly have been reporting compensation amounts in the Tokyo Stock Exchange securities report that…
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19 November
Evans Cycles to close stores despite ‘almost all profitable’
Evans Cycles is set for store closures despite a recent administrators proposals document by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) claiming “almost all the stores were profitable”. In the document, PwC found that the company’s financial woes mainly stemmed from being “burdened” by costs at its head office. Last month it was…
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19 November
Black Friday footfall expected to drop as shoppers go online
Retail intelligence experts Springboard have forecast that Black Friday and the following weekend will do “very little to help the beleaguered high street”. Footfall is anticipated to drop by 3.7% year-on-year compared with last year and down 2.7% over the weekend as a whole. This follows a decline in footfall…
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19 November
J.Crew CEO steps down despite promising turnaround signs
J.Crew Group has announced that CEO James Brett is to step down with immediate effect after reaching a mutual agreement with its board of directors. The news comes just 17 months after Brett was appointed to lead a turnaround strategy for the fashion retailer. Recent months have seen the brand…
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19 November
London’s West End remains ‘best-performing’ European shopping destination
London’s West End has retained its position as the best-performing retail centre in Europe, according to figures from independent retail real estate agency, Harper Dennis Hobbs (HDH). With a market share worth almost €10.4bn, (£9.2bn) HDH said the West End is “continuing to thrive”, even with competition from new retail…
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16 November
Retail sales slow in October after summer of strong growth
The quantity of items bought in retail sales in October fell by 0.5% when compared with September 2018, according to the latest figures from the ONS. In the three months to October 2018 the quantity of items bought increased by 0.4% when compared with the previous three months, but there…
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16 November
Superdrug warned by ASA over ‘free gifts’
Superdrug has been warned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a ‘free gift’ promotion which offered a free hand towel when customers bought certain products. One complainant said they had bought the “three black and Asian hair products” required to be eligible for the free ‘ORS Magic Hair Towel’,…
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16 November
British Land records £42m net loss as retail market ‘remains challenging’
British Land has reported a net loss of £42m in the first half of the year, attributed to the “challenging” retail market and has said it aims to reduce its retail portfolio over the next five years. British Land said that it aims to cut its holdings in retail property,…
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16 November
Black Friday set to be worth £10.4bn in the UK
Black Friday sales are forecast to grow faster than the UK retail market in Q4 2018, as the promotional period draws in spend from before and after the event, data and analytics company GlobalData has suggested. Zoe Mills, retail analyst at the firm, predicted fashion and beauty will be the…
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