Retail

Bloomberg Ikea Group, the world’s largest furniture retailer, is getting ready for a future where people have little to spare: both in their wallets and in terms of space. The Swedish furniture giant is now abandoning its custom of planning five to 10 years ahead, setting a new three-year approach to keep pace with a rapidly transforming society. The strategy ...

Bloomberg Billionaire Isaac Larian, the toy marketer whose lineup includes Little Tikes and Bratz dolls, offered to save part of Toys ‘R’ Us from liquidation with an almost $900 million bid for stores in the US and Canada. Larian would pay $675 million and $215 million for outlets in Canada, he said. The funds will come from Larian himself and ...

Bloomberg Tax cuts have given a boost to Americans’ take-home pay this year. The question hanging over the US economy is whether they are putting the extra cash towards savings and debt, or using it to go shopping. Retail-sales data due on Monday from the Commerce Department will help provide an answer, and economists are betting that consumers finally opened ...

Bloomberg Temasek Holdings Pte is studying potential investments in Swissport Group and Gategroup Holding AG, both owned by HNA Group Co., as it considers deals with the indebted Chinese conglomerate, people with knowledge of the matter said. Temasek, which inked a partnership with the Chinese group, is exploring buying stakes in a number of HNA affiliates that are complementary to ...

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV raised 3.75 billion rand ($313 million) from the sale of shares in the embattled retailer’s African operations to further shore up its balance sheet following an accounting scandal late last year. The move follows similar disposals of stock in South Africa’s KAP Industrial Holdings Ltd. and investment holdings company PSG Group Ltd. The total generated ...

LONDON / Reuters Struggling British flooring retailer Carpetright said it would seek creditor approval for a restructuring plan to close 92 stores and reduce rents at 113 of its sites, resulting in about 300 job losses. Shares in Carpetright, which has in recent months issued a series of profit warnings because of weak UK retail spending and what it calls ...

Bloomberg Canada’s biggest printer says its latest deal opens the door to making Amazon.com Inc. a customer as the online retail giant tries to break into the fresh-food delivery business. Transcontinental Inc.’s proposed $1.32 billion purchase of Coveris Americas will bring on board several food suppliers that rely on Coveris for packaging, Chief Executive Officer Francois Olivier said. Several of ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc.’s online marketplace is getting more choosy. The retailer’s website — where third-party vendors sell their own wares — is adding far fewer sellers a month compared with a year ago, according to data tracker Marketplace Pulse. The site, which Walmart created in 2009 to compete with a similar offering from Amazon.com Inc., now includes about 18,000 sellers. ...

Bloomberg After demand from China drove another quarter of rapid growth for LVMH, Chief Executive Officer Bernard Arnault is counting on e-commerce to help keep his luxury empire ahead of the pack. First-quarter sales rose 13 percent on an organic basis, the Paris-based owner of Sephora and Christian Dior said. That beat analysts’ average estimate of 8.5 percent and spurred ...

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV said two deals with entities related to its former chairman and biggest shareholder Christo Wiese didn’t follow proper disclosure processes, dragging the South African billionaire deeper into an accounting crisis. The agreements were made in the two months leading up to the emergence of financial irregularities that have wiped more than 90 percent off the ...