News roundup–Ethical Superstore, John Lewis, more


Ethical Superstore, the online seller of
all-things eco-friendly, is set to announce its maiden profit in
the year to July 2010. NE Business reports that the Gateshead-based
online retailer recorded sales of £4.3 million this year-up
from £2.9 million in 2009.

John Lewis is expect to announce that profits at
the department store chain are back to prerecession levels,
reports the Guardian. John Lewis’s half-year results, to
be released on 16th September, are tipped to show profits
returning to 2008 levels-“after crashing 50 percent to just
£20m last year”. The rise is attributed to a healthy
performance in the store’s homewares department.

After
reporting
that HMV may sell off its
bookstore chain Waterstone’s, the Guardian now writes that the chain’s founder
Tim Waterstone may buy it back. Waterstone sold the business to
stationer WHSmith in the early 1990s, which in
turn sold it to HMV in 1998 for £300 million.

DVD rental business LoveFilm welcomed Kristian
Segerstrale, chief executive of social-networking games developer
Playfish, and Roland Steindorf, formerly chief executive of Kabel
Deutschland, to its board as nonexecutive directors. According to
the Telegraph, the business is seriously
considering floating on the stock exchange, “which could
value [LoveFilm] at more than £200 million”.

New to the stock exchange, Ocado will release
its third-quarter results to the City this week. The Telegraph speculates about the figures.

Peter Nyssen, Spalding Plant &
Bulb
, Sarah Raven’s Kitchen & Garden,
Bloms Bulbs, J Parker, and
Avon Bulbs feature in a Daily Mail article titled Leaf through the
best bulb catalogues: We put six to the test.

Nicolas Berggruen’s
bid for collapsed German department store
Karstadt
was successful. The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal
will see Karstadt’s new owners inject €70 million (£58
million) into the company.

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