Including Sainsbury’s profit lift and The Entertainer partnering with Christian Aid Week.
The Source rounds up some of the key retail stories of the week.
Sainsbury’s has reported statutory pre-tax profits of £548 million for the 52 weeks ending March 12 – this follows a £72 million loss the previous year. However, like for likes slipped slightly by 0.9% for the period, but retail sales (excluding fuel) inched up 0.4%. Boss Mike Coupe said that the retailer had seen strong growth in clothing and general merchandise.
The Entertainer is partnering with Christian Aid for Christian Aid Week 2016, which runs from May 15-21. The retailer will act as the official Key Communications Partner for the week, with a number of activities taking place. Fundraising initiatives will include handing out Christian Aid Week activity sheets to educate children about the cause, placing collection boxes in store, as well as providing informative links and downloadable content for customers interested in helping. The Entertainer will also host a ‘Big Brekkie’ event at its HQ, as well as encouraging local schools to take part by offering store vouchers for schools that raise over £100.
The founder of Sports Direct, Mike Ashley has said his plans to acquire BHS are still on. He told The Sunday Telegraph: “Any continuing interest that we have in BHS would be on the basis that we would anticipate that there would not be any job losses, including jobs at he’d office, and that all stores would remain open.” BHS went into administration last week.
Mothercare is to allow suppliers to ask for early payment under a new financial initiative. While a fee will be imposed, suppliers will be able to control the rate of discount and can choose if and when they participate in the programme. The retailer has partnered with C2FO for the initiative.
Morrisons has unveiled its second consecutive quarterly rise in like for like sales, up 0.7% in the 13 weeks to May 1. However, total sales fell 1.8% – attributed to store closures and the exit of its M Local chain last year. In addition, the grocer will start selling ambient products through Amazon “imminently”. It revealed back in February that it had secured a deal to supply fresh, frozen and ambient products to Amazon, which will be sold via its Prime Now and Pantry divisions.
Next posted a sales dip for the first quarter, down 0.2%, while full price sales fell 0.9%. Sales at the retail division dropped 4.7%, this was against analysts’ expectations of a 1.6% decline. However, the Next Directory business continued to perform well, up 4.2%.
John Lewis sales grew 9.9% for the week to April 30, with customers taking advantage of the bank holiday and its price match on a competitor’s promotional activity. All categories experienced increases – electricals was up 13%, furniture grew 21.7%, gifts was up 9.6%, outdoor living sales rose 6.2%, home sales were up 9.4%, beauty, wellbeing and leisure was up 13.4%, fashion rose 8.9% and womenswear increased 12.2%.
Hotel Chocolat is to float on AIM, setting its share price at 148p per share. The retailer is looking to raise gross proceeds of around £55.5 million from the listing, according to Retail Week.
