Adventure firm Zip World secures Lloyds investment to expand across UK January 6, 2019 Adventure company Zip World has secured investment from the private equity arm of Lloyds valuing the zip wire pioneer at £45m. The funding from LDC will help the company, which runs adventure experiences in Wales including the world’s fastest zip wire, expand across the UK and beyond, it said. Founded five year ago, Zip World [...]
Retail administrations rise for the second consecutive year January 5, 2019 The number of retail administrations has risen for the second year in a row after 125 retailers collapsed in 2018. Administrations rose six per cent last year from 118 in 2017, and 26 of the retailers that collapsed were large brands, compared to 17 the year before. There was a 53 per cent increase in [...]
Chipotle to open second restaurant in Canada January 5, 2019 US fast food chain Chipotle is opening its second Canada branch next week. The restaurant in King William Street, near Monument station, will begin serving on Monday. The chain, which serves Mexican style food, already has a branch in the Square Mile at London Wall, as well as seven others in London including locations [...]
Westfield Stratford and Westfield London boost Christmas shopping footfall January 4, 2019 Westfield London and Stratford City saw record festive footfall this year, helping to dispel fears of retail gloom over the Christmas period. Christmas footfall was up 11 per cent year-on-year with 15.6m visitors visiting the centres from the start of November, the owner of the two shopping centres, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, announced today, while Boxing Day shoppers hit 350,000 [...]
Pre-booking investment drives Stonegate Pubs’ festive sales success January 4, 2019 Stonegate Pub Company saw a 17.8 per cent surge in pre-bookings this Christmas following “significant” investment in its facilities as it reported strong sales over the festive period. The pub chain, which has 735 venues across the country, revealed that it had invested in a central call centre hub to take bookings and that total [...]
Shop price inflation grows in December despite Christmas discounting January 4, 2019 Shop price inflation rose in December as festive discounting failed to keep prices down for stretched consumers. Overall inflation rose to 0.3 per cent last month, up from 0.1 per cent in November and the highest rate of inflation since April 2013. It is only the fourth month of inflation in the last five years, according [...]
Beyonce and Jay-Z music video helps Louvre break visitor numbers world record in 2018 January 3, 2019 The Louvre Museum in Paris has broken the existing ticket office world record, after visitor numbers in 2018 were boosted by a music video filmed there which featured Beyonce Knowles and her husband Jay-Z. More than 10m people visited the Louvre’s galleries of fine art and antiquities last year, topping the previous record of 9.7m [...]
EU competition watchdog approves Coca-Cola’s merger with Costa Coffee January 3, 2019 The EU’s competition watchdog has given the green light to Coca-cola’s £4bn acquisition of Costa Coffee. The merger, which was announced in August, is expected to complete in the first half of this year. In a statement today the commission said: “The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns because the [...]
Co-op to open 100 food stores in 2019 in push towards convenience January 3, 2019 Co-op has confirmed it is to open 100 food stores this year as part of a £200m push to improve its convenience offering. The new locations will come in addition to the refurbishment of 200 stores across the country as part of an investment programme it says will create around 1,500 new jobs. Around one-third [...]
Next defies Christmas fears with online sales boost but outlook remains cautious amid Brexit uncertainty January 3, 2019 Next has opened the crucial post-Christmas trading update season by reducing its full-year profit expectations, but defied investor worries by increasing sales. The retailer said full-price sales for the festive period were up 1.5 per cent between 28 October and 29 December, in line with its expectations. Next reported a 14.9 per cent increase in online [...]