VF Corporation, the US-based apparel retailer
and owner of The North Face,
Vans and Eastpak brands has
acquired apparel brand Timberland. The deal is
worth $2 billion (£1.22 billion). In the UK, Timberland owns
mail order apparel retailer Howies.
Losses widened at consumer electronics retailer Best Buy
UK, from £21 million in 2010 to an EBIT loss of
£62.2 million in the year ended 31st March. Best Buy has 10
UK stores and although says it’s delighted with the
“feedback” it received on its store-opening
programme, the retailer says it is “in the process of
evaluating the next steps in our multiformat/multichannel
consumer electronics strategy”.
Sir Terry Leahy, the former chief executive of
Tesco has made a £2 million investment
into delivery management specialist MetaPack.
His involvement forms part of a new investment alongside the
William Currie Group and Artemis. Sir Terry will provide advice
to MetaPack’s chief executive and co-founder Patrick Wall and
chief operating officer Karl Wills.
The Gluttonous Gardener, a cataloguer and online
seller of gardening and plant gifts has launched a new website
to cater for its expanded range.
Plantsdelivered.co.uk sells collections of
plants consumers can buy for themselves rather than as gift
items. The plants are presented as collections-such as potted
trios-rather than as individual plants.
Park Group, the savings-club catalogue and
high-street voucher business reported a pretax operating profit
of £5.6 million in the year ended 31st March-up 30 per cent
on last year. Revenue was up 6 per cent to £279.9 million,
compared with £263.2 million in 2010.
Congratulations to Justin King, chief executive of
Sainsbury’s on his CBE, and to Nick Robertson of
ASOS on his OBE, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
List. Thea Green, the founder of Nails Inc, a
nail bar chain and online seller of beauty products was awarded
an MBE.
Online retailer ASOS has teamed up with the
Cheryl Cole Foundation to sell a collection from the celebrity’s
own wardrobe on the ASOS Marketplace. All proceeds raised through
the clothes auction will be matched by ASOS and donated in full
to the Cheryl Cole Foundation and distributed by The Prince’s
Trust to projects in the North East of England.
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