British lifestyle brand Crew Clothing is reportedly planning to open between eight and 12 stores across the UK and Ireland this year. The first three stores are expected to open by mid-April - one in Kildare in Ireland and two in the southeast of England, Drapers reports. The retailer expects to open 20 in total... Continue Reading →

Aldi has opened the doors of its first ever checkout-free store in the London borough of Greenwich. The ‘Aldi Shop&Go’ concept store is now open for public testing after months of being trialled with the grocer’s staff. The store is located on Greenwich High Street and allows customers to simply put items in a bag and... Continue Reading →

Mall of the Emirates, owned and operated by Majid Al Futtaim, has collaborated with Cisco to bring customers an immersive, digitalised, and personalised shopping experience – the ‘store of the future’.  The first retailer to take over the space is THAT Concept Store, Majid Al Futtaim’s home-grown, luxury destination. For the first time ever in... Continue Reading →

If Starbucks is your go-to spot for a caffeine boost, soon your options will include house-branded energy drinks. The company will roll out Baya Energy online and in grocery stores this week, before the drinks hit U.S. Starbucks locations in March. The new offering marks the coffee giant's first foray into the energy drink market,... Continue Reading →

Klarna has announced it is launching a physical card in the UK through Visa. The card utilises the company’s buy now, pay later product and lets users defer payments on their purchases both in-store and online. The Swedish fintech giant already rolled the card out in Germany and Sweden, where it is currently used by over 800,000... Continue Reading →

So here, in no particular order, are my prognostications for this year. 1.   The Stores Strike Back Again. Again. Three year ago I wrote a Forbes piece not only pushing back against the non-sensical “retail apocalypse” narrative, but calling attention to the success that legacy retailers were having by investing in their brick-and-mortar locations to embrace the blur that is modern... Continue Reading →

Lockdowns – whether in South Africa, Australia or the UK – have exacted a heavy toll on retailers. Add riots, electricity shortages and poor consumer sentiment, and it’s clear that South African retailers have their hands full. However, Mr Price, Truworths, Woolworths and The Foschini Group have released wildly differing trading updates over the past... Continue Reading →

Welcome to this year’s Lisney Outlook 2022. This is the 64th year Lisney has produced an annual report on the Irish commercial and residential property markets.  Most sectors remain exceptionally resilient with strong activity levels experienced.  The last two years have brought many changes and living through the pandemic has made many of us think more... Continue Reading →

Instead of forcing customers to trawl through clothing racks, only one of each item will be displayed. Customers will then scan the QR codes of their choice to see sizes, colours and customer ratings. They can then send the item in their chosen size and colour to the pickup counter, or directly to a changing... Continue Reading →

The American owners of Boots are seeking up to £7 billion for the pharmacy chain as Asda’s financial backers join a raft of private equity firms readying bids. Walgreens is understood to be keen to offload the entire Boots business, with its operations in the UK, Ireland and Thailand, as well as the No7 beauty... Continue Reading →

Shareholders hope for positive news when the Christmas trading update is announced on Thursday 13 January Marks & Spencer is expected to reveal its strongest Christmas in years later this week, following a succession of positive trading results over recent months. The high street giant has seen its fortunes turn around over the last 12 months, despite... Continue Reading →

U.S. private-equity firm Bain Capital approached Walgreens Boots Alliance about buying its U.K. drugstore chain Boots (Bloomberg) — U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital recently approached Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. about a potential purchase of its U.K. drugstore chain Boots, the Times of London reported, without saying where it got the information.  Bain is positioning itself as... Continue Reading →

The new owners of Selfridges have revealed a number of major plans for the Oxford Street flagship site, including the potential opening of an upmarket hotel and the development of serviced apartments. Billionaire family, the Westons, sold the retailer for a substantial four billion pounds on Christmas Eve, to Thailand’s Central Group and Signa Holding,... Continue Reading →

The Cheshire Oaks outlet is understood to make up the bulk of the purchase priceALAMY One of the UK’s leading designer outlet centres is changing hands as part of the biggest retail property deal for seven years. LaSalle Investment Management, a subsidiary of the property giant JLL, has agreed to buy Cheshire Oaks and the... Continue Reading →

Victoria Beckham halved losses at her fashion business in 2020 after cutting costs and boosting online and beauty sales. The former Spice Girl has relied on shareholders pumping millions of pounds into her luxury fashion brand to keep the label afloat, with sales during the pandemic hit by enforced closures of its London boutique and... Continue Reading →

The American owner of Boots received a takeover approach from Bain Capital more than two months ago that started the potential sale of the British high street chain, The Times has learnt. It is understood that Bain, the private equity firm that recently failed in its attempt to buy LV=, the insurer, is positioning itself... Continue Reading →