This week's retail news 'you may have missed'.....
At mdj2, we’re passionate about retail and always looking to share our news, views, and insights. With so much information out there, we wanted to share just a small selection of retail news headlines from last week that we found interesting…?
?Iceland aims to double Food Warehouse stores in renewed UK expansion plan.
Iceland?Foods aims to double the number of its Food Warehouse stores, as part of a renewed nationwide expansion plan.
The retailer is on the hunt for up to 250 new store sites and is working with its long-term property advisor Mason Partners LLP, which is leading the search for new locations. If those numbers are reached it would more than double the current footprint of Food Warehouse stores, which currently number just over 200.
Iceland is targeting sites with a minimum footprint of 10,000 sq ft, located on retail parks in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Crawley, Brighton, Salisbury and Dundee are among the locations specifically named by Iceland. It’s also targeting locations in suburban areas of London, Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle.
“Iceland has plans to expand the footprint of The Food Warehouse across the UK over the next few years,” a spokeswoman for Iceland Foods, told The Grocer.? “Stores are scheduled to open in Shrewsbury, Bicester, Selby, Yeovil, Llantrisant and Wakefield across 2025.”
The Grocer understands from a senior source that the retailer has been buoyed by strong sales, with the latest drive forming the latest part of what is an ongoing, long-term expansion strategy.
According to Kantar’s latest grocery market share update for June, Iceland achieved its first annual market share growth since March 2023, which grew from 2.3% to 2.4% in the 12 weeks to 9 June. Sales were up 4.4% for the period.
In what it described at the time as an “experiment”, Iceland launched its first Food Warehouse store in 2014. In contrast to Iceland supermarkets, the larger format is typically located in out-of-town locations, aimed at “car-borne shoppers”. They’re fitted with wider aisles akin to a wholesaler, and a wide array of bulk packs of Iceland’s groceries.?
Iceland’s executive chairman?Richard Walker told The Grocer in 2021 the format had become the main focus of Iceland’s physical growth, as its stores are typically more efficient to run and achieve higher like-for-like sales compared to Iceland stores.
In June 2023,?Iceland began to close its company-run convenience stores?in favour of dual-branded wholesale supply tie-ups with a number of local?convenience?chains, including Greens Retail and SGN retail, under the Iceland Local fascia.
It’s also been?extending its concessions partnership with CDS superstores to sell Iceland groceries in The Range?stores, as well expanding its?online?offer, including through a?strategic partnership with Amazon launched in September 2023.”
?Asda scraps plans for four-day week after staff left exhausted.
Asda has scrapped plans for a four-day working week after employees insisted they had been left feeling exhausted.
While the grocery giant initially brought in flexible working arrangements in January in a bid to?tackle a revolt from dissatisfied store managers,?a trial of the four-day week has been canned,?The Telegraph reported.?
Employees taking part in the trial across 20 of the grocer’s stores worked a 44-hour week over four days, rather than five for the same salary.
However, the pilot resulted in complaints from workers that the longer shifts had been “physically demanding,” while others said it had been difficult to meet the earlier start and later finish times.
Parents also highlighted that it had led to “difficulties with childcare and school drop offs and pick-ups”.
A spokesman for the?supermarket?said a trial involving 39 hours spread across five days had proved more popular, which would run until the end of 2024.
Staff are not set to be given any cuts in pay despite the reduced hours.
?The Cotswold Company upgrades showrooms and introduces new upholstery hubs.
The?Cotswold Company furniture and homeware retailer has completed a significant programme of upgrades to its UK showrooms.
Work has included improvements to visual merchandising, tweaks to in-store layouts, and the introduction of new in-store upholstery hubs to offer customers a one-stop-shop for all their upholstery needs.
The launch of the new hubs follows strong demand for the retailer’s upholstery products with revenue in the category increasing by 96% in the year to date. This has been driven by best-selling styles such as ‘Talbot’ and ‘Morris’ and the launch of new modern styles like ‘Jackson’, which have also performed well.
Ralph Tucker, chief executive at The Cotswold?Company, said:?“Upholstery is becoming a really important part of our business.
“This, combined with our relentless focus on brand and product quality, will help us deliver on our medium-term target to become one of the UK’s leading, premium handcrafted homeware brands.”
Founded in 1996 in the heart of the?Cotswolds, The Cotswold Company has nine showrooms, including its newly opened site in Bath.
?Why two luxury retail giants are joining forces to stave off closure.
The parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue is purchasing rival store Neiman Marcus as part of a blockbuster $2.65 billion deal that hopes to retain both brands' wealthy shoppers.
Hudson Bay Co (HBC)?will control 36 Neiman Marcus department stores, two Bergdorf Goodman locations, and five Last Call outlets under the agreement.
The deal lays bare the challenges facing department stores today as brands such as?Macy's strip back their operations.?
Amazon - which has long been attempting to boost its luxury offerings - will also have a minority stake as will tech-giant Salesforce.?
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Together, Neiman Marcus and Saks will become Saks Global.?
Luxury retail shopping has slowly declined over the years, with Neiman Marcus Group among the worst-hit companies.
The business filed for bankruptcy in 2020, and by September of that year, the company had planned to shed $4 billion in debt.
Neiman Marcus began to explore a merger with Saks amidst concerns shoppers no longer wanted to purchase pricey items from designer brands.
Instead, they are increasingly flocking to low-price e-commerce retailers like SHEIN and Moda Operandi.?
'Part of what excited us about acquiring Neiman Marcus was acquiring their world-class sales force,' HBC chief executive and chairman Richard Baker told?The New York Times.?
'People have forgotten how important people are. When selling luxury products, you need beautiful stores and salespeople customers’ trust.'
Marc Metrick, chief executive officer of Saks Fifth Avenue’s online operations, supports the merger and he will become the CEO of Saks Global.
'How do you future-proof a brand like Saks or Neimans or Bergdorf? You do that through technology,' Metrick said in an interview with?Bloomberg.
'We know how to clientele. We have the bricks-and-mortar stores, which are always going to be an important part of a luxury ecosystem.'
This new combination will also give more power to company employees who negotiate with designers.?
The merger is expected to help loosen the control of in-store and e-commerce shops while cutting logistic costs.
The merger comes four years after luxury retailer Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy due to a massive decrease in sales during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.?
Reuters reported that Lord & Taylor planned to liquidate inventory in its department stores once restrictions were lifted.
It was enough for Lord & Taylor to survive its sales downfall, and by the following year, the fashion retailer was only operating online.
Macy's is also experiencing sales slumps, and the company announced earlier this year that 150 stores would be closed by 2026 as part of a restructuring plan.?
'A Bold New Chapter serves as a strong call to action. It challenges the status quo to create a more modern Macy’s, Inc,' said Macy's CEO Tony Spring at the time.?
'We are making the necessary moves to reinvigorate relationships with our customers through improved shopping experiences, relevant assortments, and compelling value.'
Despite the plans by all companies who focus on selling luxury products to its consumers, more than 20 percent of retail purchases are expected to be online this year, according to?Forbes Advisor.
The number of digital orders has hiked up so much that 23 percent of retail purchases are expected to be online by 2027.
Amazon is currently one of the most visited e-commerce websites, with nearly three billion views a year worldwide.
It also accounts for over 37 percent of e-commerce sales, which is the highest market share of all online retailers.
'In our store's business, customers have enthusiastically responded to our relentless focus on selection, price, and convenience,' said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in April.?
'We continue to have the broadest retail selection, with hundreds of millions of products available, tens of millions added last year alone, and several premium brands starting to list on Amazon.'
Jassy added that some of the retailers include Victoria's Secret, Urban Decay, Clinique, and Coach - a brand best known for its expensive handbags.?
?Morrisons launches app for wholesale customers to top up in stores.
Morrisons has launched an app to allow its wholesale and franchise partners to refresh its supplies in its supermarkets.
Retailers within the chain’s supply network are able to scan the items they want on their smartphone before checking out with a duty manager, The Grocer?reported.
The development means wholesale customers can be invoiced on their existing agreed terms instead of buying at the in-store prices and an electronic delivery note is sent via email and to their store’s EPoS systems.
Morrisons’ wholesale arm offers over 9,000 products for delivery and supplies more than 1,600 stores across five countries.
The division is one of the key pillars of new chief executive Rami Baitiéh’s strategy for the supermarket. He is also looking to bolster Morrisons’ convenience offer.
Last week, it revealed it was planning to?open 400 more Morrisons Daily?shops in a bid to take on rivals Aldi and Lidl, taking its total estate of c-stores to 2,000 next year.
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