Findel’s chairman David Sugden says the
multititle catalogue group made an “encouraging
start” to the year. Group sales inched up 1.1 per cent, with
pressure on margins offset by cost savings. In its
Express Gifts home shopping business, sales and
customer numbers were ahead of last year thanks to upgrades in
buying and merchandising effectiveness and a stronger focus on
improving the value proposition to customers. The company’s
educational supplies division also performed well during the
first 17 weeks of the year, as new catalogue releases coincided
with Findel’s “newly improved service levels”.
Following Habitat’s collapse into administration
in June, Lombok has become the latest furniture
retailer to be hit by a slowdown in consumer spending. The
retailer has closed half of its stores, writes the Telegraph, less than two years after it was
bought out of a pre-pack administration by Privet Capital.
Next is opening a Home and Garden store in West
Sussex next week, enabling customers to shop for garden sheds,
paint and gardening accessories, reports the Guardian.
Fashion retailer Kew, the sister company of
Jigsaw, has rebranded as Kew
159. The number refers to 159 Mortlake Road in Kew,
London-the company’s head office.
FootAsylum, an online retailer of shoes, has
launched a Facebook store. The retailer will follow this launch
with a mobile-optimised website and an iPhone app next month,
developed by One Iota.
To celebrate the launch of its new autumn/winter catalogue,
Argos has unveiled a series of commercials
themed around popular TV shows including Emmerdale and
Coronation Street directing viewers to itv.com/argos.
The ads can be viewed on Argos’s YouTube channel.
Share