Exclusively Housewares attracts the best
Once again the exhibitor line up at Exclusively Housewares attracted the very best housewares retailers from across the UK and Europe to this year’s show, which took place earlier this month. The show, which ran at the Business Design Centre in London, for just two days (12th and 13th June), featured 122 exhibitors – the …
June 22, 2012
Homebase End of Year Results
This deterioration in Homebase’s performance comes off the back of similarly negative recent results from B&Q and Wickes and is a reflection of the DIY sector’s reliance on the vagaries of the British weather during the spring/early summer period. Indeed, with seasonal products representing around 40% of Homebase’s Q1 sales mix, a -15% drop in …
June 21, 2012
Argos End of Year Results
Argos has announced an impressive improvement in performance, off the back of continued strong online growth, and rising sales of laptops and tablets. The retailer will have benefitted from the travails in non-food of its rivals, most notably Asda and Tesco. End of year reasults -0.2% LFL / 0.2% total (13 weeks to 2nd June …
June 21, 2012
Not all doom & gloom in DIY!
The 2012 European Home Improvement Forum (May 31st) opened with a welcome by Ralf Rahmede (General Manager of Fediyma) and John W Herbert ( General Secretary of EDRA) who confirmed that there were 481 participants in the forum from 24 countries, with no less than 90 CEO’s present. 63% of attendees were suppliers, 22% retailers, …
June 14, 2012
In business with Robert Dyas
The ‘Meet the Buyer’ day organised by BHETA with garden and homewares retailer, Robert Dyas, proved a massive success for all parties and is expected to lead to a significant number of in store and online listings. Commmercial director of Robert Dyas, Phil Green reports more than half a dozen ongoing conversations with potential new …
June 14, 2012
Take on an Apprentice
Due to the economic climate, businesses are looking to get the most from staff in a cost-efficient manner. To this end many employers have looked to either recruit apprentices or train existing staff as apprentices. In recent times, apprenticeships have developed whereby the employee would receive external training in order to achieve a recognised qualification. …
June 14, 2012
Tesco Q1 Results
From these results one message comes through loud and clear: there is no quick fix solution to the issues with Tesco’s UK business and a tremendous amount of work still remains. Although Tesco has made a start on its ‘six point plan’ and evidence of this – such as its re-launched Value range – is …
June 11, 2012
BRC Retail Sales May 2012
Total sales +3.4% LFL sales +1.3% (All numbers are year-on-year) Overall, this is a broadly positive set of numbers which, after a torrid April, will bring some much needed relief to retailers. The better weather contributed, in large part, to the more positive performance with garden centres, summer clothing,and seasonal food items all beneficiaries. A …
June 7, 2012
