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Meesho, an internet commerce platform announced a $5.5M ESOP liquidity program for all eligible current and former employees with vested stocks. This is the company’s second such liquidity program in less than a year.  Last month, Meesho raised a $570 million Series F from Fidelity Management & Research Company, B Capital Group, and other new […] from Indiaretailing.com https://ift.tt/2ZCmu2L via IFTTT

The e-commerce giant Flipkart has announced that the company has partnered with the homegrown short video platform to enable Moj to enable video and live commerce experiences. Through this move, the e-commerce platform will boost the video commerce in the country and engage the next 200-million e-commerce customers, an official statement highlighted. The statement also […] from Indiaretailing.com https://ift.tt/3ExbBhD via IFTTT

Newcastle United is poised to remain with former owner Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct sponsor due to legal clauses put in before its £305 million sale. However, its new Saudi owners are seeking to have the adverts removed in the “short term”. The new owners have been forced to keep Sports Direct signage up inside St James’ Park due to legal clauses inserted by former owner Ashley. READ MORE: Sports Direct told to “honour lease” despite plans for new Sheffield store The clauses mean the new Saudi owners have not been able to remove the ads but following the takeover led by British businesswoman Amanda Staveley, it hopes to bring them down. The sponsorship agreement between Ashley’s sports retailer and Newcastle United runs to the end of the season. The club reportedly earned a total of £2.2 million from the unpopular deals with Ashley’s retailer. Despite dominating the stadium, the club received the equivalent of £157,500-a-year from Sports Direct under Ashley, Mail Online rep...

Retailers are poised to limit their next-day delivery services in the lead up to Christmas as the sector looks to spread out orders following supply chain disruptions and staff shortages. Next and The Entertainer are among businesses mulling a temporary pause on delivery services to manage the increased demand for online orders. The Entertainer founder and executive chairman, Garry Grant said the Black Friday shopping bonanza at the end of November will be “a nightmare weekend for anybody who is trying to organise and plan for logistics”. READ MORE: Food shortages could last until Christmas, Boris Johnson warns “Wherever possible our objective is to offer the level of service the customer wants, but I’m not sure that retailers generally have the infrastructure to peak out Black Friday,” he said. “People who are offering next day delivery on things are now saying it’s a three-day delivery just to give them the ability to manage.” Meanwhile, Next is considering a proposal to b...

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While many wouldn’t necessarily associate fast fashion retail with recycling or second hand clothing, in an age where consumers care more than ever about sustainable fashion and fashion waste, more retailers are adapting and hopping onto the trend that is resale and second-hand clothing. The market saw a boom amid the Covid-19 pandemic as online platforms saw floods of traffic as Brits and shoppers worldwide stayed home and despite lockdown now easing the trend looks like its here to stay. Here’s a roundup of retailers who offer resale services alongside their original business models: Net-a-Porter This month Yoox Net-a-porter became the latest retailer to join in the resale game, as part of a partnership with resale technology provider Reflaunt. Resale services will first become available to Net-a-porter customers at the end of October and will extend to Mr Porter and The Outnet early next year. Shoppers will be able to sell pre-loved designer items across the jewelry, read...

Tesco has slashed prices on dozens of vegan products across its Plant Chef range in a new drive to encourage shoppers to eat more sustainably. The Big 4 grocer first launched Plant Chef in 2019, increasing its plant-based offerings from 32 to 300 at the time. The vegan range features meat-free burger patties, sausages, mince, meat balls, and ham slices. READ MORE: Tesco’s wonky fruit and veg scheme saves 50 million packs of food Tesco said it aims to “make it easier for you to swap every now and then” to vegan eating. “Good for your pocket, even better for the planet,” the grocer said. The initiative comes after Tesco announced that its food waste scheme called Perfectly Imperfect, which offers customers wonky food that would otherwise be at risk of going to waste, has saved 50 million packs of fruit and vegetables from going to waste. Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter The post Tesco cuts prices across entire vegan range appeared first ...

Ikea has announced it is awarding its worldwide employees a bonus for their contribution to the rise in online sales during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 170,000 employees are due to receive the one-time bonus by Ikea owner Ingka Group. The group saw the online share of its €37.4 billion (£31.6 billion) revenue for the 2021 financial year increase to 30 per cent from 18 per cent a year ago. READ MORE: Ikea to move into Topshop’s former Oxford Street flagship in 2023 The average bonus per worker has not been disclosed but will be based on each country’s proportion of total wages and will be paid out in January. Ingka Group operates home furnishings stores in 32 markets. The retailer opened 25 new locations during the financial year. “Our physical stores, large and small, will always be an essential part of the Ikea experience,” Ikea UK and Ireland country manager, Peter Jelkeby said. Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette’s free daily email newsletter The post Ikea...

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Bikayi saw a massive 30% increase in its merchant base amid this on-going festive season taking the total customer base to 4.5 million. A lot of sellers from the electronics category were able to do more than Rs.1 crore of sales in last one month. The highest GMV of Bikayi’s merchant has been Rs.10 crore, […] from Indiaretailing.com https://ift.tt/3CqX729 via IFTTT

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Joe Browns has announced plans to increase its annual turnover by 138 per cent to £100 million in sales by 2026. The initiative comes after the fashion retailer reported a cumulative growth of 68 per cent year-on-year in the current autumn/winter trading period. “During the last few months, we have had time to reflect on the next part of the journey for Joe Browns,” Joe Browns founder and managing director, Simon Brown said. READ MORE: Big Interview: Simon Brown, founder & MD Joe Browns “We start from a cracking place of sustained growth over the last 23 years, a strong performance throughout the pandemic and an excellent start to the AW21 season,” he said. “Our growth strategy, put simply, is about building on our existing customer base through new retail partners, marketplaces and our owned channels. “This in turn is linked to great value and underpinned by our mission to make people feel good and have a little fun along the way.” During the pandemic, Joe Br...

Aldi has announced it is removing all plastic packaging from its entire wooden toy range in an effort to reduce its overall use of plastics. The discounter’s new Specialbuy range, which is due to launch this Sunday, includes 26 different items such as wooden medical carts and pirate ships. The wooden toy range was first launched in 2016 and proved a success as Brits were drawn to more sustainable Christmas gifts. READ MORE: Aldi calls on charities to register for food donation scheme Aldi has also removed the plastic packaging on its giant soft toys, and a new eco plush toy – made from recycled plastic bottles – will also go on sale. The changes across Aldi’s toy range will result in a 54 tonne reduction in plastic packaging each year. It has been achieved by a number of changes, including substituting paper tape for plastic, and replacing bubble wrap with paper wrap, meaning the range’s packaging is now made from 93 per cent recyclable materials. “Eradicating waste is a ke...

John Lewis Partnership has signed a new £420 million five-year revolving credit facility linked to environmental targets. The facility is provided by seven banks who continue to offer important backing to the John Lewis and Waitrose owner and its plans. The financing replaces existing facilities of £500 million, which are due to expire at the end of next year. READ MORE: John Lewis pulls controversial ad for being potentially ‘misleading’ Under the terms of the new agreement, the interest rate the business pays on the facility will vary depending on whether it achieves three environmental targets over five years related to reducing carbon emissions, reducing food waste and moving away from fossil fuels. These targets contribute to the Partnership’s existing sustainability commitments: 1. Carbon emissions: to be net zero by 2035 2. Food waste: 50 per cent reduction in food waste across Waitrose by 2030, against a 2018 baseline 3. Transport: end use of fossil fuels across the co...

// Royal Mail launches its first delivery office in Scotland to feature an all-electric fleet of collection & delivery vehicles // The Glasgow delivery office was selected because of the city’s plans for a Low Emissions Zone Royal Mail has announced that a Glasgow delivery office has become the first in Scotland to feature an all-electric fleet of collection and delivery vehicles. The news comes as the city gears up to hosting the 26th United Nations COP26 climate summit. The G51 Delivery Office in the Govan area of the city has had its 13 diesel delivery and collection vans replaced by fully electric equivalents. Alongside this, two micro electric vehicles will be joining the fleet as the company works to further reduce emissions from its operations. Royal Mail has worked with BP Pulse in Glasgow to complete the required  infrastructure works for the move and to install eight 7kW electric charging points. The energy to power the vehicles is from 100 per cent renewabl...

// Esprit CEO Mark Daley has exited the company after less than a year at its helm // William Eui Won Pak, who joined the company in September will take on the CEO position on an interim basis Esprit chief executive, president and executive director Mark Daley has exited the company after less than a year at its helm due to personal family matters. “Mr Daley has confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board and there are no matters in relation to his resignation that need to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the company,” the retailer announced on Thursday. Daley, who was previously chief executive of Billy Reid and group president of Ralph Lauren’s Asia-Pacific region, was appointed to the top job at Esprit at the beginning of 2021 as part of a major restructuring at the business which had suffered from years of revenue decline. Daley joined as part of a shake-up that saw the departure of then-CEO Anders Kristiansen, who had been at the helm since 2018,...

// UK advertising spending in the fourth quarter is expected to reach a record £7.9bn // Spend on television ads is forecast to increase by 9% to £1.56bn – the fastest annual rate of growth in TV advertising spend since 2010 Advertisers are expected to spend almost £1 billion more marketing their products this Christmas compared to 2020, after last season was dampened by Covid-19. UK companies are forecast to spend a record £7.9 billion on advertising during the critical “golden quarter” to Christmas, retailers’ most lucrative three-month sales period. That is the highest quarterly ad spend ever recorded by the Advertising Association and the research firm Warc since figures began being compiled in 1982. READ MORE: How can retailers capitalise on a chaotic Christmas this year? Retailers have already started to release their Christmas campaigns with Very launching a humorous campaign encouraging Brits to laugh about people becoming Christmas-obsessed before Halloween has eve...

// As part of the carbon reduction drive, Morrisons said it will become the first supermarket to own and operate its own solar farm across sites // The solar farm will supply 20% of stores’ power, focused on appliances that require the most energy Morrisons has committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2035, 15 years ahead of the government’s target. The new deadline for its own operations is five years earlier than Morrisons originally pledgee with the business also aiming to reduce Scope 3 emissions – comprising those from areas such as purchased goods and services – in its own-brand supply chain by 2030 and is working with suppliers to help them achieve that. The grocer, which was acquired by private equity giant CD&R earlier this month, said it is already “ahead of forecast in reducing operational carbon emissions”, having delivered a 32 per cent reduction versus a 33 per cent target by 2025. READ MORE: Morrisons exits stock market after 54 years Mor...

// Virgin Wines confident it will avoid the supply chain chaos affecting other retailers because it  stocked up for this Christmas last year // Shares rose at the retailer after Rishi Sunak, announced  changes to the alcohol duty in his autumn budget The boss of Virgin Wines has reassured shoppers that the current supply chain crisis will not result in shortages this Christmas because the retailer has stockpiled about three million bottles. Virgin Wines announced a jump in sales and said it was confident it would avoid the supply chain chaos affecting other retailers because it had stocked up for this Christmas last year. Shares in the online drinks retailer, which floated on the London Stock Exchange earlier this year, rose after it said it had begun making preparations in 2020 to “mitigate any issues around lack of stock availability” and expected to have a full range on offer. READ MORE: Moonpig launches its biggest wine collection ever with Virgin Wines...

ReachPro Group celebrated Karva Chauth at 3 roads, sector 70, Gurugram. The high-street retail complex organised a grand affair on the 23rd and 24th of October 2021 along with live singing by Anchal Bisht and Harman Kaur, where couples were seen making the most of this festival and their time together. The centre was beautifully […] from Indiaretailing.com https://ift.tt/3jP4Qjw via IFTTT

The long-awaited 580,000sq ft counterpart to the recently overhauled Camden Market, Hawley Wharf has brought new “experiences” to local shoppers since opening over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The new complex soft launched a Curzon cinema and a host of indie retail and leisure brands, according to owner and investor LabTech. Hawley Wharf’s occupancy is set to increase to include 150 stores and 60 food outlets. The complex also contains 195 apartments. LabTech revamped the iconic Camden Market in London and launched food space Buck Street Market last year, just weeks before the lockdown was implemented. Hawley Wharf, which is a mixed-use retail destination located by the canal, features retailers alongside dining and leisure brands with a focus on attracting experience-hungry consumers and tourists post-pandemic. LabTech commercial director Maggie Milosavljevic told Retail Gazette that sales and footfall within Hawley Wharf are increasing on a weekly basis. The inve...

The owner of Toys R Us has agreed a long-term licence agreement which will see it return to the UK next year. There is a plan for web sales to UK shoppers to start over the next several months. Toys R Us ANZ has the licence agreement to run “digital and physical retail commerce” for the brand in the UK after signing a deal with brand acquisition firm WHP Global. READ MORE: HMV acquires Toys R Us in Canada with vision for UK return The companies involved did not give details of when shops would open here. Toys R Us’ estate of 100 stores in the UK closed back in 2018, with close to a quarter shut due to a CVA. The rest were impacted after the UK arm of the business entered administration. Toys R Us ANZ, previously called Funtastic, relaunched the chain in Australia in 2019. “Toys R Us today is a vibrant business with over 900 stores and ecommerce sites across 25-plus countries generating over $2 billion a year in sales and growing, especially with the new launches under...

Raymond, an Indian branded and fashion retailer, has declared a consolidated net profit of Rs.56.51 crore in the second quarter of the year ended in September 2021. Last year, the company had a net loss of Rs.136.59 crore in the July-September quarter. The expenses in this quarter stood at Rs.1,488 crore as compared to last […] from Indiaretailing.com https://ift.tt/2ZuDpEJ via IFTTT

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DLF Mall of India continues to strengthen its retail and F&B portfolio by welcoming more than 30 new international and homegrown brands across categories in Q2 of the current financial year. While it has been an arduous year for businesses across the globe, the domestic retail industry has been positive and organized retail is witnessing […] from Indiaretailing.com https://ift.tt/3CrItrI via IFTTT

Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts has written to customers to reassure them that there “will be plenty of food” this Christmas as global supply chains remain under strain. He said stores will be getting regular deliveries right up until Christmas Eve and longer-life products such as Christmas cakes and puddings, mince pies, nuts and cranberry sauce, are already available. Roberts expects Sainsbury’s to sell more fresh turkeys this year than ever before. READ MORE: Sainsbury’s cuts five years from target to become Net Zero by 2035 “I also want to reassure you that there will be plenty of food and that we are confident that, even if the exact product you are looking for isn’t available, there will be a good alternative,” he wrote. “I hope this helps you in planning for the festive season. All our colleagues and store teams are ready to do all we can to safely serve and help you in the weeks ahead.” Retailers have warned that global supply chain disruption due to the pa...

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Aldi has encouraged local charities, community groups and food banks to register now to receive surplus food donations this Christmas. As part of Aldi’s pledge to donate 10 million meals this year to families across the UK, the discounter has committed to donate more meals than ever. Aldi’s partnership with Neighbourly, the community engagement platform, has allowed Aldi’s 930 UK stores to donate surplus food seven days a week, all year round. READ MORE: Aldi price war causing “serious harm” to banana farmers With all Aldi stores set to close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and News Year’s Day, the retailer wants to ensure that any products approaching the end of their shelf life reach families who might otherwise miss out this Christmas. Charities, food banks and community groups who could benefit from the scheme are encouraged to get in touch and register now for a festive food donation. Existing charity partnerships will be prioritised for these festive collections, but where th...

Tesco has announced that its food waste scheme has saved 50 million packs of fruit and vegetables from going to waste. The initiative, which is called Perfectly Imperfect, offers customers wonky food that would otherwise be at risk of going to waste. Since launching in 2016, the total weight of fruit and veg sold is 44,000 tonnes. READ MORE: Sainsbury’s and Tesco criticised for cardboard images on empty shelves “Selling wonky fruit and veg is one way Tesco ensures the food we grow ends up feeding people, but taking steps to tackle food waste is something we can all do,” Tesco head of food waste reduction, Tony McElroy said. “This can simply mean writing a list and planning meals before going to the shops, storing things correctly or looking again at misshapen food and eating it with the knowledge it’s just as good as the conventionally shaped alternative.” The initiative started off with just two products – parsnips and potatoes – but has since expanded to include a var...

Fortnum & Mason chief transformation officer Jon Weg has said the retailer’s shift to digital has helped develop “our ways of working and processes”. Weg said the department store business wants to empower colleagues to “provide an even more exceptional level of service” supported by tech and data. He has spoken about how crucial staff have been in supporting the retailer’s adoption of technology over the past 20 months. READ MORE: Fortnum & Mason hampers running out: “demand this year has been unlike any other” Weg added that tech adoption hinges on people and said the department store had been devolving responsibility “this past year to staff to lead cross functional projects enabled by technology”. He also updated on Fortnum & Mason’s initiatives to improve CX and the digital literacy of its team, including its highly-praised apprenticeship scheme. The scheme, built to support unique roles, allows apprentices to spend 20 per cent of their time learning off the...

// Travis Perkins sees strong sales growth in its third quarter trading update // Adjusted operating profit for 2021 will be ahead of current market expectations & at least £340m Travis Perkins has posted solid sales growth in its third quarter trading update, despite the industry being hit by global supply chain troubles and a raw material pricing crisis. Sales in the third quarter jumped 13 per cent compared to two years ago, with merchanting up 15 per cent and toolstation up 1 per cent. In light of the performance, Travis Perkins now expects its full year adjusted operating profit to be ahead of current market expectations at £340 million at least. READ MORE: Travis Perkins appoints Nick Pinney as Property Director Travis Perkins chief executive Nick Roberts said: “The group has delivered a strong performance in the third quarter and is navigating well-documented supply chain and cost inflation challenges very capably. End market demand remains robust and we are conf...

// Primark extends its clothing recycling service, Textile Takeback, to Austria, Ireland and Germany // The scheme allows shoppers to drop off unwanted garments using donation bins Primark is expanding its clothing take-back initiative to Germany, Austria and Ireland after a successful roll out across the UK. Launched last summer, the scheme which allows customers to drop off unwanted garments using donation bins has already accumulated upwards of 23 tonnes of stock, which was then collected, sorted and reused or recycled. The retailer partnered with the recycling specialist firm Yellow Octopus on the scheme. READ MORE: The world’s smallest Primark store set to open in Birmingham Primark Germany and Austria managing director Christiane Wiggers-Voellm said: “Donating used clothing and thus facilitating their recycling is an important part of our efforts to become a circular and more sustainable company. “The extension of our recycling programme means that we can give more c...

// VF Corporation is aiming to achieve zero waste across all of its distribution centers by the end of 2021 // The group is also aiming to tackle the issue of energy use at its facilities VF Corporation has announced its aim to achieve zero waste across all of its distribution centers by the end of the year. The parent company of brands including Vans, The North Face and Supreme, has released its fourth annual “Made for Change” sustainability and responsibility report, detailing its progress with ongoing environmental and social initiatives, as well as new targets for the coming years. 72 per cent of VF Corp’s distribution facilities are currently verified zero-waste, meaning 95 per cent or more of their waste is diverted from landfill. READ MORE: VF Corporation appoints vice president of investor relations Now, the company is working to ensure that 100 per cent of its centers are certified zero-waste by the end of the year. Looking further ahead, the group is als...

// Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveils a raft of measures to reduce business rates //  The changes are likely to be welcomed by retail chiefs, although there will be some disappointment that there has not been a fundamental overhaul of the system Rishi Sunak has temporarily reduced business rates in a reprieve for thousands of Covid-hit retailers and is drawing up plans for the levy to be replaced with an online sales tax. The Chancellor handed a 50pc rates discount worth £7 billion to high street shops, pubs and restaurants hammered by the pandemic, in the biggest cut to the tax in 20 years. However, he insisted it would be “wrong” to give in to demands from Labour for the rates system to be scrapped altogether unless it can be replaced with another source of revenue as they are worth £25 billionn. READ MORE: Budget 2021: Here are the key points Budget 2021: What do the experts have to say? Instead, Sunak revealed “key reforms” where there will be more frequent revaluatio...

// John Lewis pulls its controversial new home insurance advert for being ‘potentially misleading’ // The retailer clarified that its accidental damage cover was available as an add-on to John Lewis’s new home contents insurance product Earlier this month, John Lewis’s latest home insurance ad, featuring a young boy dancing around his home to a Stevie Nicks song while wearing a dress, became the centre of controversy with many branding the ad as sexist. Now the retailer has been forced to pull the advert after a financial watchdog found it could potentially mislead consumers. The department store’s “Let Life Happen” ad for its new home contents insurance first ran on October 11 but on Wednesday the retailer tweeted that it had withdrawn the ad because the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considered the content to be potentially misleading and could confuse customers about the insurance. READ MORE: John Lewis faces backlash over ‘sexist’ home insurance advert John ...

The 2021 Budget was set out by Chancellor Rishi Sunak earlier today discussing how the government is going to spend the nation’s money. It marked his second budget of the year as he delivered a statement on March 3 after the previous autumn’s address was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Following speculations, Sunak confirmed that the National Living Wage will rise next April from £8.91 to £9.50 per hour – increasing by 59p per hour for those aged 23 and over. Unemployment is expected to peak at 5.2 per cent. In order to support the declining retail sector, the government today introduced a new 12-month business rates improvement relief which will offer 50 per cent business rates discount up to a maximum of £110,000. READ MORE: Budget 2021: Here are the key points BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson welcomed the property investment relief, saying that this is an initiative the BRC had called for. However, she described the budget as a “mixed bag of announcements” and ...

Central England Co-op has announced it will close the majority of its 244 food stores on Boxing Day as a thank you to staff. The retailer said colleagues can now take a longer break from work, which would allow them extra time to spend with family and friends at Christmas. Six 24-hour petrol stations will remain open to continue serving communities and enable customers and members to move across the festive period. READ MORE: Half year sales dip for Central England Co-op Central England Co-op joins the likes of Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and M&S in shutting stores on December 26. “We want to create a sustainable society for all and that starts with our colleagues, who have worked tirelessly in these extraordinary times to sustain the wellbeing and safety of our members, customers and communities,” Central England Co-op chief executive Debbie Robinson said. “Christmas is a really special time for so many and perhaps even more so this year after we missed out on celebrating the se...