Tom Joule, the biggest shareholder of multichannel retailer Joules, has held talks with Rothschild with a view to selling a stake in the business to fund its expansion. According to the Evening Standard, Joule is mulling selling a minority stake in the business to help fund its expansion in the UK and overseas.
EBITDA at New Look soared 25 per cent to £86.9 million in the first half of the year despite a sales decline of 1.7 per cent to £710.5 million. Delivering the results, chairman Alistair McGeorge said they reflect “the significant progress we have made and the positive steps we have taken in our recovery plan”. The company will continue to focus on improving its EBITDA performance as it migrates to a focus on full-price sales and fewer sales events. McGeorge says the “next stage of recovery” should see a return to sales growth based on the improvements New Look is making in its products and its better presentation in-store.
Job losses at Comet have exceeded 1,000, reports the Guardian, following the announcement that a further 735 redundancies were made in the retailer’s home-delivery network and head office. The article notes that the total number of job losses could hit 2,000 by the end of the month as Comet stores start closing down.
Multichannel retailer Crew Clothing experienced a 52 per cent increase in revenue from abandonment baskets after implementing a customer re-engagement programme. The programme, which was designed by Sub2 Technologies to increase conversion rates, is set to generate £300,000 in additional revenue for Crew Clothing in the first 12 months.
The financial pages of the Mail speculate that Amazon is due to make a big push for its wine offering in the UK.
Flying Brands, which divested its Gardening Direct and Flying Flowers businesses recently, has leased its last remaining asset, Retreat Farm. Following the lease, Flying Brands says it has sufficient cash to pay its trade creditors and has no bank debt. It still owes £750,000 to Palatine Private Equity, however. The board says it continues to “explore other options” for the company.
Amazon predicted Cyber Monday would fall on 3rd December, however, home goods etailer Wayfair estimates the big day will arrive a week earlier, on 26th November. Wayfair expects peak shopping time on the site to be between 4 pm and 5 pm, with a fairly equal consumer gender split buying items for the home. Last year, Wayfair.co.uk experienced its biggest ever sales peak on Cyber Monday, 28th November 2011 at 4.30 pm.
Tech startup Wantster, a web-based social platform allowing users to make lists of their favourite items, has secured a $4 million investment from Canadian broadcaster Evanov Communications.
Share