Retail

Bloomberg Theresa May’s government has told supermarkets to keep as much stock as possible in warehouses around the country in case the UK crashes out of the European Union without a Brexit deal, officials said. The request is being made by ministers because in the worst-case scenario, a no-deal Brexit would cut the capacity of the country’s main EU trading ...

Bloomberg For the second time this year, Macy’s Inc. is switching up its approach to China as it struggles to get its presence in the world’s most populous market right. Macy’s is shuttering its online store on Tmall, the platform for China’s biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Macy’s will now ship to Chinese consumers directly from its US ...

Bloomberg Ingka Holding BV, parent of the world’s largest home-furnishings retailer Ikea, has started construction on a $1.2 billion shopping mall in Shanghai that the company says is its single biggest investment. The mall, Ingka’s fifth in China, will span 430,000 square metres and house more than 300 local and foreign merchants, as well as an Ikea store, Ingka said ...

Bloomberg After striking a pugnacious tone at Unilever’s capital markets day last year, Paul Polman extended an olive branch in his final investor presentation as chief executive officer of the consumer-goods giant. Polman, who’s preparing to hand over to Alan Jope in January, told analysts and shareholders that he’d been texting his wife Kim about how to leave things. Her ...

Bloomberg Swedish home improvement chain Clas Ohlson will close all its stores in the UK and Germany following years of losses at its operations there and as the retail market increasingly shifts to online sales. The closures will affect about 150 employees, cost some $23 million, and set forth a “completely new direction” for the company’s operations outside the Nordics, ...

Bloomberg The founder of yoga-apparel retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. is close to joining the Chinese investor group pursuing a takeover of Amer Sports Oyj, owner of brands including Wilson tennis rackets, people familiar with the matter said. Canadian billionaire Chip Wilson is in talks to take around a 20 percent stake as part of the consortium led by Anta Sports ...

Bloomberg Robots are coming to a Walmart Inc. near you, and not just as a gimmick. The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the US by the end of the January, it said in a joint statement with Brain Corp., which makes the machines. The autonomous janitors can clean floors ...

Bloomberg UK consumer spending growth slowed in November as concerns about Brexit prompted households to become more cautious with their cash. Spending grew 3.3 percent in November, the weakest pace since extreme cold weather dubbed the “Beast from the East” kept shoppers away from stores in March, according to a report by Barclaycard published on Tuesday. The proportion of UK ...

Bloomberg Employees of Sears Holdings, inspired by the hardship fund for workers affected by the collapse of Toys ‘R’ Us Inc., are asking Chairman Eddie Lampert and the firms involved in the chain’s bankruptcy to preserve jobs and stores as well as guarantee severance pay and pensions. “While we understand that Sears and Kmart must make changes to survive, we ...

Bloomberg Wayfair Inc.’s strong Cyber Five year-over-year sales gain suggests “considerable upside potential for this quarter,” according to Baird Equity Research, who cites comparable period results over the past two years. The Boston-based online home-goods retailer reported a 58 percent increase in direct retail sales for the shopping period of Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. This compares to 2017 and ...