THE HUB RETAIL RECRUITMENT’S WEEKLY NEWS SNIPPETS
- Date: 24 August 2017
- Posted By: admin
No doubt you’re looking forward to a nice long Bank Holiday weekend. But before then, have a read of our Weekly News Snippets. This week we bring you: Mixed fortunes on the High Street; Lidl or Waitrose?; BHS – yet another chapter; and Top pay ‘slashed’!
Mixed fortunes: Laura Ashley had given a profit warning the other week – it’s second in 6 months. Now we know just how bad things are with the heritage brand. 72% bad. That’s how much it’s full-year profits have nose-dived. Why? The retailer cites ‘challenging trading conditions’ and ‘the devaluation of sterling post-Brexit’. But surely there has to be more to it otherwise all the other retailers would be down by 72%. And they’re not. Take Feelunique as an example. The online beauty retailer’s revenues are up by 27%, with year-on-year sales up by 50%. Why? Partly due to a strong Chinese market, but also because it keeps on innovating – such as it’s Pick ‘n’ Mix option, and its next day delivery all year for £8.95. Perhaps Laura Ashley needs to look at how it might get its customers back.
Lidl or Waitrose?: Apparently, Lidl. The discount grocer has knocked Waitrose off its Number 7 spot on the supermarket chart. Lidl now has a market share of 5.2% – and its sales just keep growing and growing: 18.9% in the last quarter. There’s no doubt about it, Lidl and Aldi are giving the other supermarkets a run for their money! What about you? Are you shopping more and more at the discounters, or staying loyal to your usual supermarket? Here at The Hub Retail Recruitment, we’re somewhere in the middle.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/22/lidl-overtakes-waitrose-uk-grocer-chain-discounters
BHS – yet another chapter: So The Pensions Regulator is to prosecute Dominic Chappell for not providing the documents it has requested in its investigation into the demise of BHS, and the huge pension hole that’s been left behind. Mr Chappell has got to appear at Brighton Magistrates on 20 September to explain why he’s failed to provide the information he’s legally required to hand over. That’s going to be an interesting day in court! And you can be sure that we’ll be covering it in our blog that week.
And finally…Top pay ‘slashed’! We say this very tongue in cheek. Whilst we reported last week that real pay is only going to rise by about 1%, FTSE 100 CEO’s are looking at a pay cut of some 17%. BUT. That’s a median cut from £4.3 million to £3.5 million (half way between the highest and the lowest paid). We’ll take that pay cut any day of the week!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40994440
That’s it again for another week. Next week it’s our Monthly News Round. Make sure you come back for that – and in the meantime have a great Bank Holiday weekend.