Retail

Bloomberg Counter Brands LLC, parent company of skin-care and cosmetics seller Beautycounter, raised about $65 million in new funding as it seeks to expand, according to a person familiar with the matter. The financing round was led by Mousse Partners and included earlier investor TPG Growth, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. …

Bloomberg A safety overhaul of China’s notorious baby-formula industry removed about 1,400 products from store shelves this week, clearing the way for international brands such as Nestle SA and Danone to grab greater shares of a $20 billion market. The regulations, effective from January 1, require factories making formula to register those products with China’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) …

Bloomberg Next Plc brought some cheer to UK retailers struggling with Brexit-related costs and the rise of online shopping, reporting stronger-than-expected Christmas sales and lifting its profit guidance. Shares of the apparel and home-furnishings chain, the first major British retailer to report on the holiday season, rose as much as 9.9 percent after it said price pressure would ease over …

Bloomberg Shares of Steinhoff International Holdings NV rose after the South African retail giant said it will restate financial results going back as far as 2015 amid a probe into accounting irregularities. The stock jumped 27 percent to 5.90 rand by 9:56 am in Johannesburg, the most on an intraday basis since December 12, 2017. Shares in Steinhoff, whose retail …

Bloomberg Many Britons seem to have tightened their belts this festive season in an early sign that retailers won’t have received much of a boost from the holidays. Forty-seven percent of consumers said they spent less on Christmas in 2017 than last, according to a survey by Retail Economics. A quarter said they wouldn’t shop in after-Christmas sales because they …

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said the US Postal Service should charge Amazon.com Inc. more to deliver packages, the latest in a series of public criticisms of the online retailer and its billionaire founder. The post office “should be charging MUCH MORE” for package delivery, the president tweeted from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he’s spending the holidays. “Why is …

Bloomberg Ikea is the latest company ensnared in the European Union’s sprawling tax probes as regulators look at whether the retailer’s revenue deals in the Netherlands allowed it to avoid hundreds of millions of euros of taxes. The tax breaks may have given Inter Ikea Group, which operated the Swedish furniture maker’s franchise business, an unfair advantage over rivals, the …

Bloomberg To get to Ivanka Trump’s store in Trump Tower, shoppers must first walk past metal barricades and police in body armor toting automatic weapons. Through the revolving doors is another checkpoint, where security employees check your bags. Then, once you’ve made it through, the now famous lobby and its golden elevators appear. In an alcove just to the side …

Bloomberg The US economy is booming, unemployment is low and the White House is occupied by a president synonymous with ostentatious luxury. Why, then, have Americans stopped buying expensive watches? Swiss watch exports to the US fell 0.4 percent in November, extending the decline for the year so far to 4 percent after a 9 percent drop in 2016. By …

Bloomberg Considering that the last major innovation in luggage was a four-wheeled suitcase patented in 1972, it’s understandable that recent shifts have thrown the travel industry for a loop. For the past few years, makers of so-called smart luggage—that’s bags with anything from a USB charging port to motorised wheels—have disrupted the market. Airlines are now taking note with arched …