Tobar has been acquired out of administration in
a management buyout supported by current investor Primary
Capital. The deal includes eight remaining Hawkin’s
Bazaar stores, all the stock, trading names, wholesale,
and online businesses. Primary originally invested in the
business in 2006, in a deal valued at £42 million.
Overall sales at Flying Brands were down 24.9
percent in the final quarter compared with the same period in
2010. The group, which operates mail order brands
Gardening Direct and Flying
Flowers, delivered sales of £4.83 million compared
to £6.43 million the previous year. The majority of sales
were generated by the flower division, but due to a decision to
cut back on marketing spend, sales declined 24.9 percent, from
£4.47 million to £3.29 million. The silver lining was
that through a combination of higher margins, lower marketing
costs and an improved refunds and replacements performance,
Flying Brands expects contribution to be “significantly
ahead” of last year and broadly in line expectations. Sales
from the rest of the group were also in line with expectations,
except at bird-food title Garden Bird Supplies,
where sales were affected by the mild weather and slumped almost
30 percent from £910,000 to £640,000 during the
period.
The Mail has an article on the next step in
loyalty schemes: “behavioural pricing”. It mulls
whether this will mean consumers will be charged more for
products they have “liked” on their social networks,
and whether prices in future will be “tweaked” to
suit the individual.
Kitchenware cataloguer/retailer Lakeland has
launched a mobile-optimised website developed by consultancy and
systems integrator Javelin Group.
Sainsbury’s has appointed former
Heineken UK marketing director Sarah Warby as
marketing director. Her remit includes full responsibility for
all Sainsbury’s marketing activity across brand communications,
nonfood marketing, customer insights and loyalty.
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