Retail

Bloomberg Japan’s largest clothing maker Fast Retailing Co suspended a TV commercial in South Korea which angered consumers, the Kookmin Ilbo newspaper reported. An ad in English promoting Uniqlo’s fall/winter collection had Korean subtitles that some believed made reference to a period of war-time slaves. The commercial was withdrawn from Uniqlo’s Youtube account and TV networks, the paper said, citing ...

Bloomberg For a taste of CEO Steve Rowe’s ambitions to transform Marks & Spencer Group Plc, look no further than its newly refurbished shop in London’s Clapham neighbourhood. The store looks more like a Whole Foods Market than one of the 135-year-old British retailer’s more traditional outlets. Alongside piles of avocados and herbs grown with the help of artificial intelligence ...

Bloomberg Online mattress retailer Casper Sleep Inc is working with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc on a US initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The New York-based company could go public as soon as this year or the first half of 2020, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the ...

Bloomberg Danone, already struggling with falling yogurt sales as consumers shift to vegan alternatives, is getting hit by a decline in its bottled-water business. Shares of the owner of Evian water headed towards their biggest fall in more than a decade after it lowered its annual sales outlook. The cut deals a blow to Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Faber’s turnaround ...

Bloomberg In a first step towards determining its fate, Barneys New York Inc has selected a consortium led by Authentic Brands Group LLC as its initial bidder, setting a floor for offers due next week for the bankrupt luxury retailer. The $271 million offer from the Authentic Brands group includes a plan to open Barneys shops in Saks Fifth Avenue ...

Bloomberg UK retail sales held up better than expected in September in the face of the intensifying Brexit crisis. The quantity of goods sold rose 0.2% from August when auto fuel is excluded, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Sales including fuel were unchanged. A buoyant labour market has supported consumer spending through the turmoil since the 2016 referendum. ...

Bloomberg The UK competition regulator has started a review into Amazon.com Inc’s bid to buy a slice of fast-growing food delivery startup Deliveroo, adding to the e-tailing giant’s antitrust woes around the globe. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on its website it’s investigating the purchase of rights and a minority shareholding in Roofoods Ltd, which does business under ...

Bloomberg Two of Europe’s biggest consumer-goods companies signalled a slowdown in China, whose consumers have driven global demand for everything from baby formula food to shampoo. Nestle SA said sales in the country were flat for the first nine months, while Unilever said business there “slowed a little” in the latest period. Nestle shares fell as much as 1.6% in ...

Bloomberg Indonesia is all set to make halal labeling mandatory for consumer products and services from this week, but the high cost of securing the license and absence of clear guidelines mean millions of local producers are still without certificates. The compulsory labeling will first apply to the food and beverage products and services from October 17 before being gradually ...

Bloomberg Hold on to your smartphone — the holiday price wars between Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc are heating up. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has introduced a programme to temporarily lower the price consumers pay for some items on its marketplace site, where third-party vendors pay Walmart a fee to list their goods. The merchants selling on the site, ...