THE HUB RETAIL RECRUITMENT’S WEEKLY NEWS SNIPPETS
- Date: 14 June 2017
- Posted By: admin
We again start our Weekly News Snippets in the wake of another terrible tragedy. The fire that ripped through a tower block near Westfield in West London is shocking. People have died, many are injured, and everyone living there have lost their homes. To say our thoughts are with them all is inadequate. Like us, you might be wondering, ‘why are all these terrible things happening in England at the moment’. And we won’t even comment on the outcome of the election. What can be said that hasn’t already? We live in very uncertain times.
We will still bring you some stories today, however: Less money in our pockets: Zara sales up by double digits; and WHSmith’s mixed fortunes.
Less money in our pockets: Inflation is now at a whopping 2.9%, with commentators saying it’s going to be over 3% before too long. What makes this worse is that pay increases have slowed down, so that means, in real terms, we’re 0.6% worse off. And of course, if we have less money we’ll spend less on the things we don’t need. It’s also predicted that, with the result of the election being a hung Parliament, it will be the high street that’s going to be severely affected. There’s 3 articles here we’ve picked out for you to have a read through. There are however, some strong sales for some retailers. Read on!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40273003
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2017/06/retail-industry-worst-effected-hung-parliament/
Zara sales up by double digits: And one of those strong sales is Inditex, which owns Zara. It’s sales are up by 14%. The Zara fast fashion model of retailing is a definite winner – because it can quickly respond to catwalk trends. It’s multi-channel operation is also very successful with an ever expanding online presence. It’s certainly a winner with us, as there’s few other retailers that can match it for style and price – so we’re definitely helping to keep up those double digit sales! Other strong sales are being enjoyed by Mulberry, sales up by 8%, and Ted Baker, up by 8.4%.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/06/14/zara-sales-continue-soar-parent-inditex-outperforms-rivals/
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2017/06/mulberry-profits-sales-grow/
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2017/06/ted-baker-growth-unabated/
WHSmith’s mixed fortunes: WHSmith isn’t doing great on the High Street, and hasn’t been for a while. It is however doing well on its travel division, which is what’s propping it up at the moment. The 700 shops it has in airports and train stations increased sales by 8% on last year. But on the High Street it had dropped by 4%. WHSmith is however embarking on a £49m improvement programme in it’s High Street stores, updating them and putting Post Offices in. So although it’s a mixed picture, hopefully the future will be a better one for its High Street division.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/06/14/wh-smith-high-street-sales-continue-fall/
That’s it for another week. We hope you found our stories interesting, and will visit us again next week – Wednesday 21st June – for another Weekly News Snippets. Until then, have a good week.