Fat Face demonstrated resilient growth in 2012,
with sales up 7 per cent to £163.6 million in the year ended
2nd June. Earnings were flat at £24.1 million. Fat Face
chief executive Anthony Thompson said a strategy to cut down on
discounting while introducing better quality product ranges will
stand the business in good stead for the future.
Straight plc, which specialises in supplying
recycling containers to local authorities and consumers, has
confirmed redundancies and issued a profits warning as it works
to realign the manufacturing capability of the factory it
acquired in 2010 with sales demand. Group sales increased in the
first half of 2012 by approximately 11 per cent to £16.7
million. This increase in sales was assisted by strong
performance from the garden and hardware sector. Net debt at the
end of June stood at £3.2 million, a reduction from
£4.1 million at the end of December 2011.
Following Tesco’s investment in
Blinkbox, Sainsbury’s has
launched a rival video on-demand service. Powered by the Rovi
Entertainment Store, Sainsbury’s will provide customers access to
a library of film and TV entertainment. The service will
initially be available online at Sainsbury’s Entertainment and
then expand to offer access through a range of internet-connected
devices including Smart TVs, Blu-ray players, smartphones and
game consoles.
Yorkshire-based menswear cataloguer Joseph
Turner is launching its first-ever womenswear catalogue
this month. The fabrics for the 72-piece collection have been
largely sourced from British mills and manufacturers.
Sporting goods retailer JD Sports is selling its
rugby brand Canterbury to
Pentland for £22.7 million. It has also
agreed to acquire OneTrueSaxon from Pentland for
£50,000.
Preowned fashion website Vestiaire Collective
has appointed Shannon Edwards to lead the firms UK business. She
joins as managing director, five months after the France-based
retailer set up shop in the UK. Edwards joins from fashion portal
ShopStyle Europe where she was vice president
and managing director for Europe.
Retailers may soon be required by law to provide customers with
electronic transactional data on their purchase when they request
it. According to the Telegraph, consumers currently have the legal
right to request such information via the Data Protection Act,
but the process is “long-winded and the information rarely
comes in electronic form”. The BBC has more on the story.
Forbes takes a look inside the
Ikea augmented reality app.
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