Retail

Bloomberg UK retail sales posted a modest rebound in February after a brutal start to the year, when a lockdown to contain coronavirus forced non-essential stores to close. The volume of goods sold in shops and online rise 2.1% from January, the Office for National Statistics said, in line with economists’ expectations. Sales excluding auto fuel climbed 2.4%. The pickup ...

Bloomberg Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) stores in some parts of China are being closed by their landlords as fallout from the fashion retailer’s statement about forced labour in the contentious region of Xinjiang continues to spread. At least six stores in the lower-tiered cities of Urumqi, Yinchuan, Changchun and Lianyunang have been shut down by the owners of the ...

Bloomberg ThredUp Inc., the online marketplace for secondhand clothing, climbed 43% in its trading debut after a $168 million initial public offering (IPO). ThredUp, whose shares sold for $14 in the IPO, opened at $18.25 and closed at $20, giving the company a market value of $1.8 billion. While US -based ThredUp is a favourite of sustainability-minded younger shoppers, its focus ...

Bloomberg The UK’s biggest retailers face a potential 8 billion-pound ($11 billion) legal fight after Asda Group Ltd. lost a top court ruling in an ongoing equal pay dispute. The UK Supreme Court ruled that the salaries earned by women who work in grocery stores could be compared to men who predominantly work in warehouses. The case will return to ...

Bloomberg Food-delivery startup Deliveroo Holdings Plc started taking investor orders in a share sale of as much as 1.77 billion pounds ($2.45 billion), marking the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the UK since September. Deliveroo is selling shares at 3.90 pounds to 4.60 pounds apiece, according to a statement, valuing the company at 7.6 billion pounds to 8.8 billion ...

Bloomberg An Indian court has halted implementation of a ruling that froze assets of Future Retail Ltd. and its founders on a petition by Amazon.com Inc. The American giant wants to block the sale of the retailer to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. The Delhi High Court stayed the March 18 verdict that had ordered Future Retail to ask regulators ...

Bloomberg Nestle SA is preparing for post-pandemic coffee growth as the world’s largest food company rolls out touchless machines for the office and bets new flavors will win over more consumers making coffee at home. The maker of Nespresso and Nescafe is planning a wider introduction of machines that can be controlled via smartphone, catering to concern about viral transmission, ...

Bloomberg Zomato Pvt, an Indian food delivery startup backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, is planning to file the draft prospectus by April for its initial public offering that could raise about $650 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The company could complete the listing in Mumbai before the end of September, the people said, asking not to ...

Bloomberg Three years ago, Walmart Inc. offered hundreds of thousands of its US workers a new perk to keep them from quitting. Employees loved it. Rivals copied it. Now Walmart has reached a conclusion: It hasn’t quite worked as expected. The perk is an app that gave employees the ability to tap their wages before payday, along with a bevy ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc. has removed rules requiring sellers on its marketplace website to be registered in the US — an attempt to close the e-commerce gap with Amazon.com Inc. and tap into China’s vast network of manufacturers. This month, the world’s largest retailer began opening up its third-party marketplace to foreign sellers, who no longer need a US address or ...