How Britain’s big retailers missed their online moment
The last few months of the year may be dubbed the golden quarter for retailers, but it has been a lacklustre period for...
Swap shop: ex-Topshop guru pops in to Liberty to rent out clothes
Jane Shepherdson was once named the most powerful woman in British fashion. As the boss of Topshop when it ruled the high street...
Small steps towards a plastic-free world | Letters
Re John Vidal’s article (The solution to the plastic waste crisis? It’s not recycling, Journal, 15 January), after his earlier article on plastic...
Pressure for business rate reform to lift town centres intensifies
Ask a British retailer what has gone wrong on the high street and the chances are they will complain long and loudly about...
High street gloom continues as fears grow over UK economy
High street sales in Britain slumped in December as consumers reined in their spending over the key Christmas shopping period, adding to the...
Weak retail sales raise fresh pressure on Bank of England
British retail sales unexpectedly contracted at the end of last year, fuelling concerns that the resilient consumer sector has deteriorated and adding to...
Primark sales down after challenging Christmas for UK retail
Sales at Primark’s UK stores went backwards at Christmas in a further sign of the toll taken on fashion retailers by grim market...
Philip Green's Arcadia closes more stores after tough Christmas
Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, the owner of Topshop, Topman and Dorothy Perkins, is closing a fresh wave of stores in the wake...
Do not adjust your set: Gwyneth Paltrow is spreading Goop all over TV
Huge excitement in TV’s burgeoning disinfomercial genre, as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix show prepares to make landfall next week. Based on her lifestyle portal,...
Halfords rides bicycle sales boom
Halfords enjoyed a surge in bicycle and scooter sales over the Christmas period boosted by the popularity of new electric models and its...
Primark same-store sales slip in the UK
Primark warned of a small decline in same-store sales in the UK, its most important market, though it said that its troubled German...
Stockton-on-Tees rues 'bloody online' as Debenhams closes
There’s been a department store in the market town of Stockton-on-Tees for over a century. But the last one closed its doors for...
Asda trials refill points and bottle recycling in 'sustainability' store
The supermarket chain Asda is joining forces with some of the UK’s best-known food and drink brands to create a “sustainability” store, in...
Inflation falls to three-year low on back of high street discounting
UK inflation has dropped to the lowest level for more than three years, fuelled by struggling retailers offering a wider range of discounts...
After the sleep economy, what's next to be monetised? Breathing? | Arwa Mahdawi
For a moment, I thought 2019 might have been the year the startup bubble finally burst. Lyft and Uber both had disappointing initial...
Warhammer TV series in pipeline as Games Workshop sales soar
Games Workshop is hoping to replicate the success of hit fantasy TV shows such as The Witcher with a new series based on...
Karren Brady: as a feminist, I couldn’t carry on working for Philip Green
Karren Brady, the businesswoman star of television’s The Apprentice, has said she resigned from the board of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire because...
Boohoo worth more than M&S after Christmas sales surge
The stock market value of the online fashion firm Boohoo has overtaken Marks & Spencer thanks to strong Christmas sales, while M&S was...
Former BHS owner ordered to pay £9.5m to pension schemes
The disgraced entrepreneur Dominic Chappell has been ordered to pay £9.5m into BHS pension schemes after his appeal failed.
Chappell, a former bankrupt with...
Boohoo upgrades forecasts after strong end to year
Teen fashion retailer Boohoo said it now expects full-year revenue to be 40 per cent to 42 per cent ahead of last year...
Ashley’s Frasers Group calls for business rates reform
One of Britain’s highest-profile retailers has written to the prime minister requesting urgent reform of transitional relief, the mechanism that prevents the business...
Beales in sale talks to avoid collapse
Beales, one of the UK’s oldest department store chains, is in talks with two potential buyers to save it from a collapse that...
More than half of groups turning to CVAs still go under
Bankruptcy proceedings designed to save struggling companies have resulted in failure in more than half the cases where they have been used, according...
Beales department store chain close to collapse
The department store chain Beales is on the brink of collapse and must find a buyer within days, with about 1,000 jobs at...
John Lewis top brass leaves ‘partners’ and customers seriously underwhelmed
What note will Sir Charlie Mayfield, the outgoing chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, leave for his successor, Dame Sharon White, when she...
Discounting heightens pain for UK retail’s squeezed middle
In retail, the Grinch goes by another name: Black Friday. But this time round, he stole Christmas all the same.Superdry capped off a...
Cost-cutting at Asda supermarket chain puts 2,832 jobs at risk
More than 2,800 Asda workers face the threat of redundancy as Britain’s third-largest supermarket chain looks to cut costs.Asda has begun a consultation...
Superdry and Joules issue profit warnings after tough Christmas
The fashion brands Superdry and Joules have warned that profits will fall significantly below expectations after a tough Christmas.
Shares in both companies crashed...
Discounter B&M knocked by sluggish UK sales growth
Shares in variety discounter B&M fell 9 per cent in early trade after the rapidly-expanding group reported disappointing same-store sales in its core...
Alcohol sales fuel strong Christmas growth at Lidl
Lidl’s UK business reported an 11 per cent increase in sales over the Christmas period, which the discount retailer said made it the...