As it gears up to enter the most important trading period of the
year, Shop Direct is broadening its reach
outside of the UK. The home shopping giant, which operates
Littlewoods and Isme among
others, is taking its young fashion title Very
into the USA and 47 other countries starting next month. The news
comes as Shop Direct announced that losses narrowed from £21
million in 2009-10 to £7.8 million in the year ended June
2011. Sales during the year rose 5.5 percent to £1.94
billion.
Profits at department-store chain Debenhams rose
10 percent to £166.6 million in the year ended 3rd
September. Revenue for the 53-week period was £2.21 billion,
4.2 percent higher than last year. Michael Sharp, the firm’s new
chief executive officer, is cautiously optimistic about
Debenhams’ prospects in 2012, commenting that management will
“continue to run the business with tight management of
costs and stocks, retaining as much flexibility as possible in
the supply chain to enable us to deal with whatever the market
presents”. In his strategy for the future, Sharp announced
a focus on a store-opening programme, which could see Debenhams
open up to 240 more UK stores. Growing multichannel and expanding
internationally are also on his to-do list.
In related news, Debenhams’ finance director Chris Woodhouse is
leaving the business to focus on his other business commitments.
He will be succeeded by Simon Herrick, former
Kesa financial director, who becomes chief
financial officer, effective 10th January 2012.
Dixons is set to appoint a UK boss to free up
chief executive John Browett to focus on group strategy. The
Independent reports that the position is
likely to be filled internally, with Katie Bickerstaffe, group
director for marketing, people and property, and Sebastian James,
the operations director, the front-runners.
Online marketplace eBay expects its mobile
presence (apps and website) to generate “almost $5 billion
in merchandise volume” this year and
PayPal mobile to delivert $3.5 billion in
payment volume. For the full year 2011, eBay forecasts total net
revenues in the range of $11.5 billion to $11.6 billion.
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