Retail

Bloomberg Kraft Heinz Co. suffered its worst stock decline in more than two years after posting disappointing sales and profit, boosting speculation that the food giant will need a large acquisition to fuel growth. The shares tumbled as much as 7 percent in the wake of the results, which reflected a persistent slump in the US packaged-food industry. Though Kraft …

Bloomberg Hennes & Mauritz AB executives, addressing a gathering of investors for the first time since reporting an earnings slump, failed to convince shareholders that the apparel retailer’s turnaround plan is on track. The Swedish company said it expected sales in comparable brick-and-mortar stores to recover in 2019 but said they’d continue to slide this year. The shares fell as …

Bloomberg Gucci surged past rival Hermes in sales as shoppers snapped up more of designer Alessandro Michele’s crystal- and sequin-coated creations over the holidays. The Italian fashion label closed out the year with another quarter of runaway growth, with comparable sales rising 43 percent, parent Kering SA said in a statement on Tuesday. Its revenue of 6.2 billion euros ($7.6 …

Bloomberg PepsiCo Inc.’s snacks are having to pick up more of the slack for its ailing beverages. The company posted sales and earnings that topped analysts’ estimates last quarter, helped by an uptick in volume at its Frito Lay business in North America. The snack growth helped offset continued declines at the Purchase, New York-based company’s drinks business. Still, a …

Bloomberg Pandora A/S said the US retail market remained challenging for its physical stores last quarter, but pointed to an improved performance in online sales. Revenue grew 16 percent in the Americas last quarter from a year earlier, the Copenhagen-based company said. In local currency, Pandora saw a 27% increase. “Growth was supported by the acquisition of franchise stores in …

Bloomberg The Amazon-fuelled grocery price war may have finally arrived. News that Amazon.com will start offering two-hour delivery from Whole Foods stores in four US cities has the food world buzzing that competition is about to heat up in an industry that survives on razor-thin margins. In the six months since Amazon acquired the organic grocer, the e-commerce giant has …

Bloomberg Avon Products Inc named its first male chief executive officer in almost two decades, appointing Unilever veteran Jan Zijderveld to succeed Sheri McCoy as the cosmetics seller seeks to revive its business outside the US. Zijderveld, the Anglo-Dutch consumer-product giant’s European president, joins the door-to-door makeup seller after it split off its declining US business and moved its headquarters …

Bloomberg How can regional startups compete with Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in the cloud-storage space? Look for small clients, speak Spanish, and snap up your peers, according to one CEO. Diego Cabezudo, co-founder and chief executive officer of Spain’s Gigas Hosting SA, believes his company’s model of helping customers develop their cloud infrastructure, and doing so in their local …

Bloomberg As the UK forces companies to disclose the gap between men’s and women’s pay, the country’s biggest private employer is confronted with a massive demand from workers feeling short-changed. Supermarket chain Tesco Plc has been presented with claims that law firm Leigh Day says could eventually total as much as 4 billion pounds ($5.6 billion). The firm contends that …

Bloomberg And just like that, another Internet giant is stepping into health care. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said it’s teaming up with AstraZeneca Plc in an effort to improve health services in China, the UK-based drugmaker’s second-largest market. Coming just days after a pledge by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to collaborate on new approaches …