Retail

  Bloomberg Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific Ltd. is nearing the acquisition of Coca-Cola bottling assets in China from a unit of state-owned food giant Cofco Corp., people with knowledge of the matter said. Swire is close to an agreement to purchase stakes in Coca-Cola bottlers from Cofco’s China Foods Ltd. subsidiary, the people said, asking not to be identified …

  Bloomberg Market leader Tesco Plc continued to lead a counterattack by Britain’s supermarkets last month as German discounters Aldi and Lidl recorded the slowest sales growth since 2011. Tesco’s sales rose 2.2 percent in the 12 weeks ended November 6, researcher Kantar Worldpanel said. The growth was the fastest in three years and sent the shares up as much …

  Bloomberg If you shop at Wal-Mart, you might be buying packaged produce unlike any ever sold in a U.S. store. The sliced apples or cut broccoli — the merchant won’t say what’s involved exactly — are being used to test blockchain, a new database technology. If successful, the trial could change how Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which serves some 260 …

  Bloomberg UK retail sales surged far more than economists expected in October as cooler weather boosted spending on winter fashions lines, sending clothing and footwear sales to the biggest increase in more than 2 1/2 years. The volume of goods sold in stores and online jumped 1.9 percent from September, when they rose 0.1 percent, the Office for National …

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. is turning to merchants who sell on its marketplace for extra warehouse space, a less-costly way to expand inventory available for quick delivery. Inventory available for delivery within two business days expanded by 6 million items under the Seller Fulfilled Prime program, the company announced on Thursday. Amazon earlier this year introduced the program, which lets …

  DUBAI / Emirates Business First Avenue, the new shopping mall and hotel planned for Dubai’s Motor City, signed up leading retailer Carrefour as a key anchor tenant ahead of the project’s launch early next year. As a recent report shows that Dubai’s retail market will surpass US$52 billion in sales by 2020 and the government aims to attract 20 …

  Bloomberg Hugo Boss AG said it won’t return to growth until 2018 as Chief Executive Officer Mark Langer embarks on a turnaround plan for the ailing German fashion house that includes eliminating brands, slowing down store expansion and selling more online. The retailer said 2017 will be a transition year as it reorganizes its wholesale unit that sells to …

  Bloomberg Here’s one area where Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is handily beating Amazon.com Inc.: telling shoppers what ingredients are in the products they’re buying. That’s the conclusion of a scorecard that ranks major retailers’ policies on harmful chemicals. Wal-Mart holds the top spot, followed by Target Corp. Amazon occupies last place in the study, which is scheduled to be released …

  San Francisco / AFP German-based hotel booking site trivago, controlled by US online travel giant Expedia, filed for a public share offering in New York. The firm founded in 2005 which aims to connect travellers to hotels at the lowest rate is used for booking at 1.3 million hotels in over 190 countries, and has 55 localized websites and …

  Bloomberg Telkom SA SOC Ltd. said first-half earnings rose 20 percent as South Africa’s biggest landline provider reported a maiden profit for its faster-growing mobile business. Earnings per share excluding one-time items were 3.36 rand in the six months through September, the Pretoria-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. That was in the middle of a range forecast …