Year: 2019

Shoe Zone revenues up in FY results despite ‘challenging’ second half

Footwear retailer Shoe Zone has reported revenues of £161.9m for the year to 5 October 2019, up from £160.6m in 2018, in its preliminary reports for the trading period. The retailer said trading conditions in the second half of the financial year were “challenging”, but its new ‘Big Box’ store…

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Sports Direct appoints RSM UK as new auditor

Sports Direct has announced the appointment of RSM UK Group as its new auditor with immediate effect. It ends a six-week hunt for a new auditor, after Grant Thornton announced it was stepping down from the position on 13 August 2019. At the time, the firm said “following a review…

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85,000 retail jobs lost in the last year

Third-quarter retail employment fell by 2.8% year-on-year, the equivalent of around 85,000 jobs, marking the 15th consecutive quarter of decline in the retail workforce. According to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), full-time employment saw a decrease of 4.5% compared to the decrease in part-time employees of…

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Debenhams poised to name Mark Gifford as new chairman

Debenhams is reportedly about to name Mark Gifford, former chief financial officer at House of Fraser, as its new chairman. According to Sky News, Gifford’s appointment as chairman of Debenhams holding company, Celine Holdings, could be revealed by the end of this week.  His career included being the chief financial…

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Nike CEO and president Mark Parker to step down in 2020

Sports fashion retailer Nike has announced that its CEO and president, Mark Parker, will step down next year. He will be succeeded by John Donahoe, who will be appointed as the company’s new president and chief executive officer, effective 13 January 2020. He will remain on the board of Nike…

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How the barcode is continuing to impact the retail world

In our daily lives we hardly give the barcode a second thought. We only really come across it when we’re shopping and even then, it’s merely a ‘bunch of lines and spaces’ that helps us process the transaction and buy an item. But the barcode is so much more than…

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Online retail sales drag in September

Online sales grew by a marginal 0.6% year-on-year in September, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. The firm said that despite the “extended period” of challenging results, September’s figures failed to match the already low six and 12-month rolling averages (respectively +2.3%, +5.3%), and plummeted well below…

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Royal Mail strikes could cost retailers £8m

A possible Black Friday Royal Mail strike could force retailers to attempt to pass on 8.5 million parcels, or 105,000 van loads of parcels to other carriers – which could cost them around £8m in higher postal costs. That is according to management consulting company Bearingpoint, who revealed that if…

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UK retailers store profit margins halved since 2011, study finds

A new report by global professional services firm Alvarez and Marsal, in partnership with Retail Economics, has shown that store-based profit margins for the top 150 UK retailers have more than halved in less than a decade, dropping from 8.8% in 2009/10 to 4.1% in 2017/18. “Ballooning” operation costs have…

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How retailers can guarantee success this festive season

Whether it’s Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot, or John Lewis’ The Bear and The Hare, Christmas adverts are often the ones that stick in our minds as consumers, with an influence that lingers long after the trees have been taken down and the turkey sandwiches devoured. For retailers, the festive period…

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