Retail

Bloomberg Ocado Group Plc is investing in a pair of vertical-farming ventures as the UK maker of online retail technologies branches out following its mammoth deal with Marks & Spencer Group. The company said it bought a 58 percent stake in Jones Foods Co, Europe’s largest operating vertical farm, based in Scunthorpe, England. Ocado will use its know-how in automation ...

Bloomberg An influential New York Democrat has written to Amazon.com Inc asking about a report that the company plans to cease wholesale orders from thousands of smaller suppliers. US Representative Nydia Velazquez, chairwoman of the House Committee on Small Business, wrote to Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos asking about the nature of his company’s relationship with small suppliers, whether ...

Bloomberg Starbucks Corp this month will begin a first-of-its kind trial of reusable cups at London’s Gatwick airport. People drink a lot of coffee at airports. Gatwick says it already recycles a majority of the 7 million disposable coffee cups that travellers use each year. The airport wants to improve on that, and reusable cups potentially have a lower carbon ...

Bloomberg Fosun International Ltd’s tourism unit is in talks to buy Thomas Cook Group Plc’s tour-operating business, Sky News reported. Hong Kong-listed Fosun is already Thomas Cook’s biggest shareholder and is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co on the potential offer. Discussions are at an early stage and it isn’t certain a bid will emerge, Sky said, citing people it ...

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV’s financial scandal and sugar maker Tongaat Hulett Ltd’s admission it may need to restate results is spurring South African auditors to weigh tougher measures for the profession. While auditors are expected to reassure the public that the financial statements they have signed off are reliable, the standards used don’t require them to uncover wrongdoing. That ...

Bloomberg Tiffany & Co’s US sales to Chinese tourists fell by more than 25 percent last quarter, a trend that’s worsening as a trade war escalates between the two countries. The jeweller first started seeing cracks in tourist spending a year ago, and it has further deteriorated over the past three quarters. Company executives said on a conference call that ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is creating a mess on both sides of the Pacific Ocean for American fashion labels Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. PVH Corp, the parent company of both brands, plunged the most in a decade after reporting that the escalating battle is causing anxious American and Chinese shoppers to buy less. “Tariffs and ...

Bloomberg Capri Holdings Ltd, the company behind Michael Kors and other luxury brands, tumbled the most in almost seven months after trimming its sales projection for the current year amid foreign currency weakness and lower revenue from wholesale. Capri sees revenue of $6 billion for the current fiscal year, the company said in its quarterly earnings report. That’s down from ...

Bloomberg Tiffany & Co is poised to close in the red for the sixth consecutive session, the longest losing streak sense December 2016. Shares are down 10 percent in the six-day period, trailing the S&P 500’s decline of 3.5 percent for the same period. Tiffany is due to report quarterly results June 4, and analysts are projecting revenue to fall ...

Bloomberg Back when Eddie Lampert was campaigning for approval of his plan to rescue Sears, he emphasized his promise to give severance to employees who lost their jobs after the retailer went bankrupt. If liquidators wound up with the chain, he told Sen. Elizabeth Warren in February, “these employees would be getting nothing.’’ Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) criticised ...