Retail

Bloomberg Bed Bath & Beyond will eliminate 2,800 jobs under a plan to cut costs and streamline operations amid deepening challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers. The “significant workforce reduction” will begin immediately, affecting both corporate headquarters and retail stores, the home-goods retailer said in a statement. Along with previously announced restructuring actions, the latest effort will result in as much as ...

Bloomberg Japan’s second-largest convenience store operator FamilyMart Co will become a wholly owned subsidiary of top shareholder Itochu Corp after the trading house succeeded in its tender offer for the retailer’s shares. The deal will lift Itochu’s stake in FamilyMart to 65.7% from 50%, allowing the trading company to begin the process of delisting the convenience store operator from the ...

Bloomberg Women’s activewear retailer Sweaty Betty is preparing to put itself on the block, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The London-based company could fetch about 400 million pounds ($524 million) in a transaction, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Potential suitors could include large retailers or ...

Bloomberg For nearly all retailers, the pandemic has meant shoppers check out less often and stock up on each trip. But Target Corp bucked that trend with record sales and profit last quarter, emerging as a winner in the Covid-19 era. The shares jumped as much as 13% to their highest price ever last week after Target reported a 4.6% ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc’s India brick and mortar retail partner Future Retail Ltd is in talks with banks to help fund a missed interest payment before a deadline. The company failed to pay $14 million of interest due July 22 on its 5.6% 2025 dollar notes, and is in a 30-day grace period that expired last week. If payment were not ...

Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc plans to cut about 7,000 jobs after its clothing business was hit hard by the coronavirus lockdown, adding to the toll of lost employment in the UK retail industry. The move to eliminate about one-tenth of the store chain’s workforce follows a 39% plunge in the clothing and home arm’s sales in the latest ...

Bloomberg UK consumer spending jumped the most since 2016 last month, led by a surge in Internet purchases as bars and restaurants continued to suffer. On-line demand surged 16.2% in July compared with a year earlier, according to a monthly index by Visa and IHS Markit. Total spending rose 2.4%, while hotels, bars and restaurants say an 18% drop. Household ...

Bloomberg Home Depot Inc reported sales growth that was more than double the already brisk rate analysts had been expecting, sending shares higher in early trading. Same-store sales rose 23.4%, sharply beating the estimate for an 11.4% gain from Consensus Metrix. Revenue of $38.1 billion also surpassed expectations. Home Depot Chief Executive Officer Craig Menear called the sales performance “record-breaking.” ...

Bloomberg On the surface the rebound in US retail sales is a V-shaped recovery, but the overall figure obscures lingering economic pain across many of America’s businesses. After a third straight monthly increase, albeit a weaker gain than expected, the total value of US retail sales has rebounded above pre-pandemic levels. But the composition of spending looks substantially different than ...

Bloomberg Jumia Technologies AG is facing fresh competition from startups in the African e-commerce and logistics market after the Covid-19 pandemic increased demand for online deliveries. The US-listed firm is seen as one of the pioneers of internet trading in sub-Saharan Africa, which trails the rest of the world due to challenges including weak internet connections and unreliable addresses. But ...