Retail Bites
Thursday 3rd March 2016
In case you missed them, a round-up of interesting retail related stories from the last fortnight or so.
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Morrisons agrees grocery supply deal with Amazon
Excellent news for Morrisons as it agrees to supply Amazon with ambient, fresh and frozen products. Commentators often say Morrisons need to capitalise on its manufacturing capability and this move may represent a significant step in that direction for David Potts. The next step may be make sure consumers know Morrisons is the second largest food manufacturer of fresh food, which is one of Morrisons great assets.
Sports Direct falls out of London Stock Exchange FTSE 100
Sports Direct has lost half of its value, which means the company is worth £1.6bn less than it was last summer. Wow! Apparently, Sports Direct is now ranked at 142 on the FTSE. Profits have fallen considerably, the business, and Mike Ashley, seem to be in the press constantly for the wrong reasons. How the public perceive a business matters and it is hard to say that Sports Direct has a good reputation at the moment.
Poundland boss Jim McCarthy steps down after 10 years
Well done to Jim McCarthy who has enjoyed an excellent ten years at Poundland and has chosen to retire. Mr McCarthy transformed the business into a £1bn turnover operation – admittedly helped by consumers recession driven desire for value. The only current blemish with Mr McCarthy’s tenure was the acquisition of 250 99p Stores which Mr McCarthy says were “in a mess” when the company bought them. Kevin O’Bryne, who previously ran B&Q, will succeed him.
Google takes on Amazon with its Express grocery delivery service
This could be old news for you, having been announced in September 2015, but Google are up and running. Although, on a very small scale at present. It took Amazon ten years, after it first trialled delivering food, to commit to the exercise whole heartedly. With ad blockers becoming more common place Google needs to be diversify to preserve its growth and delivering food may be one way Google can do that.
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