More on Me + Em – Page 2838
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News
Arcandor to apply for state aid
Debt-laden conglomerate Arcandor – parent of the Karstdadt stores business – aims to formally apply for state aid soon, its boss told reporters. “We are striving to submit an official request for state guarantees through the banks,” said chief executive Karl-Gerhard Eick. Small banks want to withdraw e90m (£81m) loans ...
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Ikea to expand in the Gulf
Furniture group Ikea plans to expand in the Gulf region with two stores in Oman and Qatar, in addition to adding new stores to its existing chain in Saudi Arabia. The retailer will also increase the space of its Abu Dhabi store from 9,685 to 21,530 sq ft, according to ...
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Carrefour bids for supermarket chain
Carrefour has entered the bidding to acquire Brazilian supermarket chain Gimenes, which has also received a proposals from local operator Associação Ricoy. Gimenes has 23 shops across São Paulo, Brazil’s largest state, and is Brazil’s 22nd largest supermarket chain. Carrefour, Brazil’s market leader, has put two offers on the table. ...
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Mercator suffers net profit drop
Mercator, the country’s largest food retailer, has suffered a first-quarter net profit drop of 30.8 per cent year on year to €6.4m (£5.7m), which it attributed largely to higher financing costs. Operating profit for the first three months of the year rose by 11.5 per cent year on year to ...
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Shopper's Stop to open new outlets
Department store group Shopper’s Stop is to open a further 12 outlets in the next three years. The first four will be this year in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. The retailer, one of India’s biggest with 26 department stores, said that one of the triggers for expansion was the steep ...
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Tesco thinks local to outrun global recession
It’s too early to call the end of the global recession, but it has stopped getting any worse. That’s the prognosis from Tesco international director Phil Clarke.
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Mindbubble.co.uk maximises social media potential
Mindbubble.co.uk has been created to get women aged between 25 and 50 years old to participate in brand and product research, providing a textbook example of a way that social media techniques can be used by big business.
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NewsRetail bosses back National Skills Academy for Retail
Top retail bosses get behind launch of National Skills Academy for Retail. Ben Cooper reports
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News
Hyper Hyper owner seeks further sites
The owner of fashion retailer Hyper Hyper, Baboo Sehgal, is looking for more sites after temporarily taking the old Zavvi store at the eastern end of London’s Oxford Street.Sehgal is offering rails for new designers and concessions in the Oxford Street shop.He will open another store on London’s Portobello Road ...
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OpinionIs Westminster beckoning for Next’s Simon Wolfson?
In the retail industry, much of the chatter last week centred not on Next’s latest numbers, but chief executive Simon Wolfson’s future plans. For some time, speculation has mounted that he might consider a shift into politics, casting himself as Lord King to David Cameron’s Mrs T.
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OpinionEvery problem is an opportunity
Even swine flu creates opportunities for canny retailers to tap into, says Jacqueline Gold
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OpinionUnreasonable returns laws need rethink
Many unhappy returns – and sometimes no returns at all. When it comes to online and catalogue retailing, there’s a whopping imbalance between the obligations the law places on traders versus customers
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InterviewAn interview with Pets at Home boss Matt Davies
As top dog at Pets at Home, Matt Davies’ passion for the business has helped slash staff turnover and drive profits in the past year. Nicola Harrison meets him
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GalleryStore of the week: Intersport, Gothenburg
It’s not often that retailers open very large sports stores these days, but pan-European operation Intersport has just unveiled this 10,000 sq ft, single-floor outlet in Sweden’s second city, Gothenburg.
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NewsWin for London’s Fashion Retail Academy students
The shopkeeping school backed by companies including Arcadia, Marks & Spencer and Tesco, won the Retail Futures Challenge at last week’s World Retail Congress. Their e-tail venture, Updatemywardrobe.com, blends social networking with selling and beat rivals from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and the Hong Kong Polytechnic.The contest was ...
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News
Wal-Mart to end monthly sales reporting
Wal-Mart is to end its monthly sales reporting, which the retailer has been doing since 1979, to “better align investors with the retailer’s business plan and cut volatility caused by holiday shifts”, said Wal-Mart chief financial officer Tom Schoewe.Separately, Easter’s April timing helped improve US retailers’ same-store sales growth for ...
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AnalysisWorld Retail Congress: Is the worst of the global downturn behind us?
At the World Retail Congress last week, talk was focused on whether the recession is reaching a turning point, and what retailers need to do to ensure they emerge fighting fit when it ends. Retail Week reporters joined the 800 retailers in Barcelona to gauge the leading opinions
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AnalysisLearning from the best outside retail: McDonald’s, Unilever, Barclays and BT fight the recession
Retailers aren’t the only customer-facing businesses that are fighting the recession head-on. Joanna Perry learns how four leading companies from outside retail are tackling the downturn
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AnalysisBe sure your marketing attracts the tourists
Overseas shoppers are making the most of the weak pound, so how can retailers exploit this international influx? Charlotte Hardie reports
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AnalysisSt David’s in Cardiff: right scheme, wrong time
Launching a shopping centre extension in the present climate is a tough task, but as Ben Cooper reports, St David’s in Cardiff should stand up to the challenge and raise the city’s retail profile