Retail

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co.’s head of community banking, Carrie Tolstedt, will retire from the firm at the end of July. Tolstedt, 56, who led the retail-bank unit, will be succeeded on July 31 by Mary Mack, who oversees the retail brokerage, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said this week in a statement. Tolstedt had joined a Wells Fargo predecessor ...

AFP Oculus has announced it is ramping up availability of its Rift virtual reality gear and planning a major conference in October for developers making software for it. Facebook-owned Oculus said that all pre-ordered Rift headsets have been sent to buyers, and promised that new orders made online at oculus.com will ship within four business days. “We want to apologise ...

  Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV agreed to buy UK discount chain Poundland Group Plc for £597 million ($794 million) as the South African company looks beyond Britain’s Brexit vote to further expand its European retail interests. Steinhoff’s cash offer is worth 222 pence a share, about 40 percent more than where the stock was trading before bid speculation sent ...

  Reuters Jarir Marketing, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest retailers by market value, missed analysts’ estimates as it posted a 17 percent fall in second-quarter net profit amid a decrease in sales of computers and office supplies. It made a net profit of 128.5 million riyals ($34.3 million) in the three months to June 30, down from 154.9 million riyals ...

  London / AFP Burberry appointed Celine chairman Marco Gobbetti as its next chief executive, replacing Christopher Bailey who will become the British luxury fashion group’s new president. Gobbetti, currently the chairman and chief executive of French luxury brand Celine, will join the board in 2017 “as soon as he is contractually able to do so”, Burberry said in a recent ...

  Havana / AP Cuba has quietly opened a first-of-its-kind store specialising in bulk goods in Havana: Zona +, a high-ceiling space with racks stacked with large tins of tomato sauce, toilet paper and cooking oil by the gallon. It’s not quite Costco, and it falls short of satisfying longstanding calls for a wholesale market to support the growing class of ...

  Bloomberg Trade appears set to make a rare contribution to U.K. economic growth in the second quarter despite a sharp decline in exports in May. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics showed the deficit in goods and services widened to 2.3 billion pounds (US$3 billion) from 2 billion pounds in April. Exports fell 4.4 percent, with shipments ...

  Bloomberg Gap Inc, the biggest US apparel-focused retailer, posted June sales that topped analysts’ estimates, a sign the company’s long-promised turnaround could be taking hold. Total same-store sales, a key benchmark, rose 2 percent in June, the San Francisco-based retailer said in a statement. Analysts had predicted a 3.6 percent decline, according to estimates compiled by Retail Metrics. The ...

  Bloomberg UK retailers had their worst June in a decade as consumers reined in spending ahead of the country’s European Union referendum, according to figures from accounting firm BDO. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 3.6 percent last month, with weekly figures deteriorating progressively, BDO research showed. A separate report from researcher GfK showed UK consumer ...

  Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc reported its steepest drop in clothing sales in eight years as new chief Steve Rowe’s efforts to win back customers with cheaper prices on leggings and fewer clearances came at a cost. Same-store sales of clothing and home goods fell 8.9 percent in the 13 weeks ended July 2, the London-based company said ...