Lidl to Invest ￡4bn in UK Food Businesses in 2023
Jeannette Linfoot
Corporate CEO turned Entrepreneur, Board Advisor, Mentor and Investor committed to helping Business Leaders, C-Suite Execs and Entrepreneurs to overcome business challenges and scale growth.
One month already down and here we are into February already. Hope January was amazing for you.
Every week I’m here to bring you the latest business news of what’s going on both in the UK but also globally. Feel free to let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like me to cover in future updates.
In the meantime happy reading!
GENERAL
Food inflation soars to highest level on record - Figures published in the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) shop price index show food inflation rose to 13.8% in January, up from 13.3% in December. This rise has pushed it above the three-month average rate of 13.2%. The BRC also reported a rise in costs of ambient food, such as canned vegetables and soups, which rose to 11.3% in January, up from 11% in December.??
UK expected to be only major economy to shrink in 2023 according to IMF - The UK economy will shrink and perform worse than other advanced economies, including Russia, as the cost of living continues to hit households, the International Monetary Fund has said. The IMF said the economy will contract by 0.6% in 2023, rather than grow slightly as previously predicted. However, the IMF also said that it thinks the UK is now "on the right track".?
ON THE UP
Shell caps off bumper trading year with record ￡32.2bn profits - Shell capped off a highly lucrative year of trading with bumper fourth quarter earnings of ￡7.9bn, powered by booming liquefied natural gas sales. The hefty returns has helped power the energy giant to record profits in 2022, with Shell unveiling ￡32.2bn in full year earnings, more than double last year’s total. Following the strong headline results, the London-listed firm has announced a fresh share buyback programme of ￡3.2bn.
Lotus to list electric car business in deal backed by world’s richest man - Lotus is to list its electric car business in the US in a $5.4bn deal backed by the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault. Lotus Technology, the EV division of the British car marquee, is to merge with a special acquisition company (SPAC) listed in New York. The SPAC is backed by L Catterton, a private equity business part-owned by the Arnault family. Mr Arnault, the chief of luxury group LVMH, is the world’s richest man with an estimated net worth of $189bn.
Wickes sales boosted by energy-saving products - Wickes like-for-like sales grew by 5.2% in its fourth quarter as it saw strong demand for energy-saving products such as loft insulation and draught excluders. “Do It For Me” like-for-like sales soared 34.5%, which helped total group sales increase by 11.5% in the final three months of 2022. However core like-for-like sales slipped 2% over 2022 as a whole, with the DIY group seeing steep declines at the start of the year as trade eased back from the boom seen during the pandemic.
Pets at Home raises profit outlook and makes key exec hire - The pet retailer posted like-for-like sales growth of 8.3% in the 12 weeks to 5 January and said trading momentum had continued since then, meaning annual profits will likely top previous guidance. Retail revenue climbed by 8%, or 7.6% on a like-for-like basis. The pets retailer had a record trading day on 23 December with sales of over ￡8 million. Pets at Home has also said that Kathryn Imrie has been appointed to the newly created role of chief consumer officer. Imrie previously held the same role at Sky Deutschland where she helped lead the repositioning of the consumer business.
Ryanair reports bumper profits as it enjoys ‘pent-up travel demand’ - Ryanair has reported profits of ￡185m for the last three months, nearly triple its profits for the same period pre-Covid. The budget airline said “pent-up travel demand” over the October half-term and Christmas holidays has led to a bumper quarter. For the same quarter pre-Covid, it made ￡77m and this year it said passenger numbers are 7% higher than before the pandemic, with 38.4m using the airline from October-December.
Lidl to invest ￡4bn in UK food businesses in 2023 - Lidl GB is to invest ￡4bn in British food businesses in its current financial year as it looks to provide further support for its suppliers. In 2019, the supermarket committed to a five-year ￡15bn investment but this figure is now expected to rise to ￡17bn. Sourcing two-thirds of its core produce from the UK, Lidl GB works directly with over 650 suppliers across the UK.
LVMH luxury giant's sales soar despite China losses - The world's biggest luxury group has reported strong sales driven by the holiday shopping season. LVMH said they experienced a second straight record year with revenue and profits despite geopolitical tensions and high cost of living. Sales reached almost $25bn (￡19.9), a 9% increase in the final three months of the year. The company saw strong growth in Europe, US and Japan which made up for losses in China due to Covid lockdowns.
领英推荐
IN THE DOLDRUMS
Flybe collapses and cancels all flights, with hundreds of jobs lost - Flybe has ceased trading and all its scheduled flights have been cancelled, with hundreds of jobs lost. The airline has gone into administration less than a year after returning to the skies following a previous collapse. 277 of Flybe's 321 staff have been made redundant. The remaining 44 have been retained.?
British Steel draws up plan for 800 job losses amid government funding talks - Britain's second-biggest steel producer has been drawing up secret plans to axe hundreds of jobs even as it continues talks with ministers about ￡300m of taxpayer funding that would partly depend on decade-long employment guarantees. The planned cuts would arise from the closure of coke ovens, although Scunthorpe's two blast furnaces and other mills within the Chinese-owned group would continue to operate, an insider said.
Morrisons falls further behind grocery rivals - Morrisons has continued to lose ground against rival grocers as its woes under private equity ownership continue. The Bradford-based supermarket, which was once the UK’s fourth biggest, was the only major player except Waitrose to see sales drop in the last three months. The grocer reported a 15% drop in full-year profits to ￡828m for the 52 weeks ending October 30, 2022.
Gymshark makes job cuts as it restructures US arm - Gymshark has confirmed it is axing roles at its North American headquarters in Denver, Colorado. The move which will see 65 jobs cut is part of a wider business restructuring of its US arm. A Gymshark spokesperson said: “We can confirm we are restructuring our US business, which will see the elimination of 65 jobs.
Superdry’s shares plunge 16.5% as retailer downgrades guidance amid ￡17.7m of losses - Superdry downgraded its-full year guidance amid soaring losses. Instead of a profit of between ￡10m and ￡20m Superdry expects to break even, after losses soared to ￡17.7m in the first half of its 2023 financial year. This is a ￡21.7m decrease when compared to a profit of ￡4m a year earlier.?
300 Asda roles at risk as 4,000 staff face pay cut - Asda has unveiled a major shake-up of its store operations, putting close to 300 roles at risk and reducing pay for over 4,000 night workers. The grocer is proposing to move some overnight restocking shifts at 184 stores to the daytime, placing 211 night shift manager roles at risk. The changes will also affect 4,137 hourly paid workers, who will see shift patterns move to the daytime and lose their night shift pay premium of at least ￡2.52 per hour.
ONES TO WATCH
Warning of ‘marked slowdown’ in mortgage lending from Santander as bank’s profit creeps up 2% - Santander UK’s net mortgage lending climbed higher in 2022, helping to boost profits, but its CEO warned that the bank would have to navigate?“a marked slowdown” in mortgage lending in 2023. The Spanish bank’s net mortgage lending increased to ￡9.8bn from ￡7.5bn last year helping pre-tax profit creep up 2%. CEO Mark Regnier said the increase in profit was “underpinned by net mortgage lending of ￡9.8bn.” Santander also benefited from higher interest rates with net interest margin for 2022 increasing to 2.06%, up from 1.92% last year. In the fourth quarter alone, net interest margin was 2.12%.?
Amazon Prime and Netflix brace for cancellations as Brits look to trim spending - More Brits are planning to unsubscribe from video streaming services this year, after new data revealed the number paid-for subscriptions in the UK fell by two million last year as rising costs continue to eat into household budgets. Data analytics group Kantar revealed today that the number video streaming subscriptions in the UK fell from 30.5 million to 28.5 million in 2022.
Paperchase - Tesco buys stationery brand but not its shops - Tesco has bought the brand and intellectual property of High Street stationery chain Paperchase, hours after it fell into administration. But the grocer has not acquired the chain's 106 shops in the UK and Ireland, leaving the future of 820 staff in doubt. Paperchase's administrators, Begbies Traynor, said 75 workers at its head office have been made redundant. All stores will remain open for now with two weeks to redeem gift cards.
Flight Centre takes over luxury operator Scott Dunn for ￡121m - The deal was confirmed by the Australian travel agency group and is expected to be completed before the end of February. In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Flight Centre Travel (FLT) said the acquisition for the UK specialist in tailor-made luxury holidays was being funded by raising equity.
Home Bargains acquires Quality Save discount chain - Home Bargains has acquired variety discount chain Quality Save. Founded in 1974, Quality Save has 21 stores in the north of England. It has now become a wholly owned subsidiary of?TJ Morris, which trades as Home Bargains. TJ Morris was established in 1976 and now has more than 500 stores and employs 27,000 people. A Home Bargains spokesman told The Grocer: “We are pleased to confirm that TJ Morris acquired Quality Save with effect from 26 January 2023.