Virgin Media is to disappear from the high street after deciding its network of more than 50 retail stores will stay shut once the coronavirus pandemic lockdown ends. The cable and TV company, which operates 53 stores in the UK, is offering the 341 affected staff the opportunity to move to newly created roles. About... Continue Reading →

Debenhams was already struggling before the lockdown, having fallen into administration on April 9 in a protective measure against creditors demanding their money. (Image: PA Wires) Debenhams is set to cut hundreds of head office jobs as it plans to reopen following lockdown, the department store has confirmed. The retailer, which is in administration for... Continue Reading →

Boohoo Group has fully acquired UK fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing (PLT) for an initial consideration of £269.8m after purchasing the remaining 34% shares from minority shareholders. The initial consideration has the potential to increase to £323.8m if PLT sees its share prices averaging £4.91 per share between the date of completion and 14 March 2024. This... Continue Reading →

High street retailer Monsoon Accessorize is on the brink of administration, having suffered from the impacts of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.  The business is preparing to file a notice of intention to appoint administrators as soon as tomorrow. Advisory firm FRP Advisory is lined up to handle the process.  Drapers understands various parties have already shown... Continue Reading →

JOHANNESBURG, May 28 (Reuters) - Budget retailer Mr Price is not looking to buy department chain operator Edcon “in part or in whole”, the company said on Thursday, responding to market speculation. Last week, Mr Price said it wanted to raise capital via a share issue at an appropriate time and could use the proceeds... Continue Reading →

Amid the constant tussle between commercial landlords and retailers it is the property owners who are often portrayed as villains. Traditional bugbears such as upward-only rent reviews play their part in this. But retailers also have had to contend with business rates, rises in the national living wage, challengers from overseas and online competition. This... Continue Reading →

As it undergoes bankruptcy proceedings, JCPenney has added a new label to its brand arsenal. The company announced yesterday the debut of Linden Street, a bedding collection that marks a “significant enhancement to its home merchandise division.” The launch comes less than two weeks after the retailer filed for Chapter 11 protection, aimed at allowing it to develop a restructuring... Continue Reading →

Reducing debt remains its objective even if it does not take place quickly, CFO says A Pep store in Balfour Shopping Mall, Johannesburg. Picture: WALDO SWIEGERS  Pepkor will miss its debt reduction targets due to the coronavirus-induced economic contagion, the latest company showing signs of distress as it stares down the barrel of one of... Continue Reading →

Clarks, the UK-based shoe retailer, will cull the ranks of its corporate staff by a net 700 people worldwide, including in Asia during the next 18 months. In all, 900 jobs will be lost, the first 160 of which were announced in the UK this week. However by the end of the restructuring process, about... Continue Reading →

The job cuts are part of Clarks' Made To Last" turnaround strategy, which was first launched at the end of last year. // This will consist of 160 immediate redundancies followed by another 700 in the next 18 months // Clarks says the job cuts will be partially balanced by the creation of around 200 new... Continue Reading →

Victoria’s Secret will close 250 stores in the U.S. and Canada, parent company L Brands has announced, in the latest retail casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. The closures will represent nearly a quarter of Victoria’s Secret’s 1,091 locations in North America, and L Brands will also permanently shut down 50 Bath & Body Works in... Continue Reading →

The administrators told creditors that Edcon could be saved because it had 'valuable brands and market position that can possibly be preserved through business rescue'. Reuters | about 2 hours ago JOHANNESBURG - Administrators in charge of South Africa’s Edcon believe there is a reasonable chance of saving the retailer after it filed for a form of... Continue Reading →

Once store locations can reopen, in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines from local government and health officials, Pier 1 Imports plans to liquidate all of its remaining stores. BY KELLY CORBETTMay 19, 2020 The last we heard from home goods chain Pier 1 Imports was in February when the retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced it would shutter... Continue Reading →

More than two months after the company closed all of its retail locations, Sephora’s reopening is beginning—at least in some states. Starting May 22, Sephora will start a phased reopening as states allow non-essential businesses to open their doors. The company is starting with 70 stores in 13 states, including Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina, South Dakota,... Continue Reading →

164 of its 199 employees have already been made redundant, KPMG saidAntler expected to shut down its 18 stores KPMG plans to trade the business in administration through online channels Suitcase maker Antler has gone into administration after sales were hit hard by store closures and travel restrictions in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.... Continue Reading →

French Connection was started in 1972 by North London-born Stephen MarksThe business recorded a pre-tax loss of £7.3million in the year to January 31 High street fashion retailers have struggled recently due to online competition Fashion retailer French Connection says its cash reserves could dry up in the coming months if it fails to gain... Continue Reading →

Visits to Britain's shops plunged by a record 85 per cent last month.  High Streets saw footfall drop by 81.8 per cent compared with April 2019, data from the British Retail Consortium showed.  Just a few stores, such as local supermarkets, were allowed to remain open.  But there was even worse news for shopping centres,... Continue Reading →

The chairman of Debenhams has waded into a bitter row with one of its most powerful landlords after discovering it had held secret talks to hand some of its prized beauty departments to arch rival Next.  Mark Gifford is understood to have personally intervened after Hammerson, the shopping centre giant, cut a deal to hand... Continue Reading →

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Shoprite Holdings on Wednesday joined Pick n Pay in agreeing to drop exclusivity clauses in shopping mall leases against small and speciality retailers with immediate effect. Shoppers leave the Shoprite store in Daveyton, South Africa May 23, 2018. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo Supermarket chain Shoprite will also immediately cease exclusivity against other supermarkets... Continue Reading →

Sales at WH Smith crashed by 85 per cent last month as travel restrictions crushed its airport and railways business and the lockdown led to the closure of most of its high street shops. The retailer said that sales in its travel business plummeted by 91 per cent in April as most of its 807... Continue Reading →

Dave Lewis, the chief executive of Tesco has been handed a £6.42 million pay package, the highest annual pay packet for an executive, since the departure of Sir Terry Leahy in 2011. Lewis received a £2.4 million annual cash bonus and another £2.4 million long-term share bonus on top of £1.6 million in basic salary... Continue Reading →

Updated : May 11, 2020 11:28 PM IST Footwear retailer Aldo last week filed for bankruptcy protection in its home country Canada.It said the coronavirus pandemic had put “too much pressure” on its business and cash flows. Footwear retail chain Aldo last week filed for bankruptcy protection in its home country Canada, saying the coronavirus pandemic... Continue Reading →

Both J.C. Penney and Sephora have now patched up their differences and both have reaffirmed their partnership moving forwards. A conflict of interest was initiated after Sephora threatened to end its current contract with Penney early and close its in-store shops in Penney stores. Sephora is Penney’s only beauty partner and boasts approximately six hundred... Continue Reading →

By Jessica Paige SHARE British retailer Matalan has asked existing lenders Barclays and Lloyds to inject £50m of government-backed funding to maintain liquidity. The banks agreed to lend money as part of the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme. This loan came with the condition that the retailer repay immediately were it to default. In April, Matalan released... Continue Reading →

Anne Pitcher, the Selfridges managing director who has spent a lifetime working in shops, replies bluntly when asked how it felt to turn the lights out and pull up the shutters on Oxford Street's most iconic store. 'Awful,' she says, describing herself as 'never happier than when I'm on the shop floor'. 'The day we... Continue Reading →

J.C. Penney is in talks to secure financing for bankruptcy as the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the American retail industry, people familiar with the matter tell CNBC. The Plano, Texas-based retailer skipped a $12 million interest payment on April 15, starting the clock on a 30-day grace period that could force it to file for... Continue Reading →

This Apple Store in Anchorage Alaska will be one of the first to open its doors. Photo: Apple BY ED HARDY • 1:01 PM, MAY 8, 2020 The long wait is almost over. Apple said Friday it will open the doors of a few of its U.S. retail locations next week. The majority of Apple... Continue Reading →

Next's new beauty concept halls will be located in Birmingham, Reading, Leicester, Glasgow and Croydon. Next has signed new flexible leases to take over the existing beauty halls in Debenhams stores that are set to permanently close down in five Hammerson shopping centres. The fashion retailer said these will be run as standalone Next premium... Continue Reading →

The Canadian athletic apparel and accessories maker has now opened a 5,590 sq ft retail space, in Harbour City. Customers are encouraged to discover the brand’s extensive collection of workout apparel, ranging from yoga to running, and more, for both women and men.  The store opening marks Lululemon’s seventh retail location – and largest –... Continue Reading →

SEATTLE (AP) — Nordstrom plans to permanently close 16 of its 116 full-line stores as it adjusts to the retail environment during the coronavirus outbreak. The Seattle Times reports that the company didn’t identify which stores would be closed. In a statement, CEO Erik Nordtsrom said COVID-19 was causing the Seattle-based company to speed up... Continue Reading →

SINGAPORE: Singapore's retail sales in March fell at the steepest pace in 22 years as consumption across nearly all categories plunged due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but a few sectors were unscathed, most notably supermarkets and hypermarkets.  Retail sales fell 13.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis, data released by the Department of Statistics (SingStat) showed... Continue Reading →

The potential transaction could be part of a bankruptcy filing Brooks Brothers is reportedly seeking a buyer after having extended a sale process which was initially set in motion at the end of last year. The US fashion retailer, which has over 250 stores in the world with many in the UK, has felt the... Continue Reading →

U.K. mobile operator O2 could be set to merge with Virgin Media to create one of the country’s largest mobile, broadband and TV companies. Spanish firm Telefónica, which owns O2, on Monday confirmed it was in talks with Virgin owner Liberty Global about a potential merger of the two companies. “In relation to the news... Continue Reading →

Preppy retailer J.Crew filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday morning, according to multiple reports, becoming the first major retailer to do so amid the coronavirus pandemic, which forced businesses to shut their doors out of safety—and all but eliminated brick-and-mortar sales. The company said it reached a deal to restructure $1.65 million of debt... Continue Reading →

Selfridges was one of the first UK retailers to temporarily close its stores amid the coronavirus crisis. Selfridges has reopened its food hall at its London flagship, but the rest of the store and its other sites in Manchester and Birmingham remain closed as the lockdown continues. As food retailers are considered essential and can... Continue Reading →

TM Lewin, founded in 1989 on London's Jermyn Street, trades from 66 stores in the UK and five in Australia. Charles Tyrwhitt is reporting mulling a takeover of rival retailer TM Lewin after its owners put the business up for sale last month. According to Sky News, Charles Tyrwhitt is among a number of parties which... Continue Reading →

The company now believes it can navigate the Covid-19 crisis without drawing on government assistance Victoria Beckham has made a U-turn on her decision to furlough staff at her fashion label during the coronavirus pandemic. The singer turned fashion designer, 46, had previously placed 30 members of staff on the government furlough scheme, meaning they... Continue Reading →