Retail

Bloomberg Reed Krakoff, the designer who catapulted Coach to fashion prominence, and made it a $5 billion handbag Goliath, has officially traded in his leather for diamonds. Hired by Tiffany & Co. last year as chief artistic director, he was brought in to overhaul the iconic jewelry brand’s design, attract younger shoppers and reverse an extended sales slump. On Tuesday, …

Bloomberg Walmart Inc.’s plan to shed control of its UK grocery chain, Asda, reflects a global strategy to emphasize faster-growing markets over some of its more mature ones. The world’s largest retailer said that Asda will combine with British retailer J Sainsbury Plc, mixing the UK’s second-biggest supermarket chain with No. 3 Asda in a deal worth about $10 billion. …

Bloomberg Lotte Group’s retail unit is selling 22 of its stores in Beijing to China-based grocer and hypermarket rival Wumei Holdings Inc. for 256 billion won ($237 million), the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information. Lotte Shopping Co. has taken a sales hit in China over the past year after the group provided land for …

Bloomberg EBay Inc. gave a disappointing forecast for revenue growth in the second quarter, taking the shine off Chief Executive Officer Devin Wenig’s turnaround strategy. The online marketplace said sales will be $2.64 billion to $2.68 billion in the second quarter, while analysts were projecting $2.68 billion. The outlook stirred concerns about the company’s ability to return to consistent growth …

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV ex-Chairman Christo Wiese is suing the scandal-hit retailer for $4.8 billion as the South African billionaire seeks to recoup investments he made in the company in 2015 and 2016. The retail tycoon was the biggest shareholder in the owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the US when the company reported a hole …

Bloomberg Paul Singer’s activist hedge fund, best known for its jousts with underperforming corporate titans, is about to start selling books in the UK. Elliott Advisors, a unit of Elliott Management Corp., has entered a binding agreement to acquire Waterstones from Alexander Mamut’s Lynwood Investments, the bookseller said in a statement. Waterstones operates a chain of 283 bookshops in the …

Bloomberg The people have spoken. And they want fried chicken late at night — preferably without leaving the comfort of their homes. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, the fast-food chain owned by Restaurant Brands International Inc., posted a surprise gain in same-store sales in the US last quarter. Helping the business? Dinner and post-dinner delivery orders. While the service is only offered …

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV’s former Chief Executive Officer Markus Jooste has been thrown a lifeline by banks as the global retailer he oversaw for 18 years struggles to survive an accounting scandal that happened under his watch. The 57-year-old’s personal investment company Mayfair Holdings Pty Ltd. has been given until the end of the year by lenders to sell …

Bloomberg Kering SA rose after the luxury company’s white-hot Gucci brand kept up its relentless growth pace at the start of the year, with online sales more than doubling in the first quarter. The Paris-based company’s shares rose as much as 6.1 percent early Wednesday after it said comparable sales grew 37 percent in first quarter. Analysts had expected a …

Bloomberg Whitbread Plc is betting that its faster-growing Costa Coffee chain will compete more effectively against the likes of Starbucks Corp. once separated from the company’s hotel business. Costa will be spun off from Premier Inn within 24 months, the Dunstable, England-based company said. The planned split follows mounting pressure from activist investors who said the two businesses sit uneasily …