Multi title etailer The Hut Group is considering offshoring jobs to facilitate its future growth. According to the Manchester Evening News, the Hut Group’s board is considering three options: the first is to stay at its current Northwich base if improvements are made; the second option is to relocate to either Manchester or Birmingham; the third option is to relocate senior roles to larger cities and outsource operational roles overseas. The article notes that the first option is currently the Hut’s preferred choice.
Releasing its financial results this morning, Shop Direct delivered improved EBITDA performance driven by strong focus on brands, efficiency, stock and cash. EBITDA at the owner of Littlewoods, Very and Isme soared 66 per cent to £108.9 million in the 12 months to 30th June 2012, compared to £65.8 million in 2011. In turn, pretax losses narrowed by 27 per cent to £57.7 million. Group sales nudged up 0.4 per cent to £1.67 billion. The company also revealed that mobile transactions now comprise 20 per cent of all online sales with traffic up by 260 per cent year on year.
CollectPlus, the parcel delivery and returns company, has opened its 5,000th parcel store in its nationwide network of convenience shops, supermarkets and garages. CollectPlus says 88 per cent of the UK’s online shoppers are now within five miles of a CollectPlus store in rural locations.
Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus is expanding its ecommerce operation to 100 countries, including the UK. The retailer, famed for its OTT Christmas offerings, has localised its website offering local currencies and international shipping costs, as well as guaranteeing no additional charges at delivery
for overseas customers.
If you thought the Fifty Shades of Grey craze had passed, you’re mistaken. An official range of sex toys developed together with the bestseller’s author EL James and sold via Lovehoney became available to preorder yesterday. A third of the entire stock intended to last until Christmas sold out on the first day of trading. Lovehoney says extra stock is being shipped to meet “the huge demand from couples keen to sex up their Christmas”.
Following the arrest of foreign students working illegally in a Tesco warehouse in Croydon, the supermarket has been fined £115,000, writes the Telegraph. Tesco said it has taken steps to ensure “an incident of this nature does not happen again”.
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