Stamps and collectibles specialist Stanley Gibbons is to acquire the assets of US-based collectibles business Stampwants.com Inc–trading as bidStart–for $1 million (approximately £622,000). In order to finance the acquisition and meet working capital requirements, the company
has placed more than 3 million shares, raising approximately £6 million. The President and majority shareholder of Stampwants.com Mark Rosenberg will sit on the board of Stanley Gibbons E-Commerce Ltd, a newly formed Jersey-based subsidiary. In addition, he has been contracted to remain with the bidStart business as the president and chief executive of Stanley Gibbons (US), the company’s newly formed US subsidiary.
Marks & Spencer is launching four localised customer websites, in Germany, Spain, Austria and Belgium. The move is part of the retailer’s ongoing strategy to become a leading international, multichannel retailer. It has plans to trade online in 10 international markets this financial year following the successful launch of websites in France and Ireland.
Birmingham-based Mobile Fun, an online seller of mobile phone accessories has announced revenues of £10 million for the year ending 31st March 2012, representing a 10 per cent increase on 2011. The company says it’s on course to hit sales of more than £12 million over the next financial year.
The Leicester Mercury reports that Joules Clothing has sold its Rampant Sporting division to an unnamed retailer. The piece also notes that Joules
is back in the black, having posted a pretax profit of £1.14 million in the year to 27th May, compared with a £535,000 loss the previous year. Sales grew by 9.3 per cent to £66.6 million in the same period.
Retail sales at Next were up 1.1 per cent while sales in its direct arm rose 5.6 per cent in the third quarter. The retailer said stronger sales in late September and early October made up for the unusually quiet start to August. The results have led Next to increase its profit forecast, from a minimum of £575 million to £590 million.
A new advertising campaign by nursery brand Mamas & Papas will feature pictures of same-sex and single-parent families writes the Telegraph.
Oliver Cookson, the founder of sports-nutrition website MyProtein (now part of The Hut Group) has launched a new online slimming plan called Saints & Slimmers.
House of Fraser is consolidating all its product information onto Stibo’s STEP platform. The STEP system will see all product information located in a single repository where it can be managed effectively by merchandisers and product managers. It will allow House of Fraser to deliver accurate and consistent information to all sales channels.
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