Lidl and its sister chain Kaufland have received almost $900m (£576m) in public development funding over the past decade, including the World Bank, according to The Guardian. The paper reported that the companies, owned by large retail company Schwarz Group and controlled by one of Germany’s wealthiest families, received loan funding from a little-known wing of the World Bank and from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The institutions, funded by taxpayers and owned by governments, have mandates to increase local development in the countries where they spend their money. The banks said their funding for the retailers would help them with expansion across central and eastern Europe, creating jobs, opening new markets for local producers and bringing “affordable food” to poor consumers in the process. The paper pointed out that there was no suggestion of wrongdoing with regard to the receipt of the money.
The cost of a basket of popular grocery items has nudged slightly up for the first time in more than six months, according to groceries website mySupermarket.co.uk. Prices increased by a few pence from £86.60 in May to £86.84 in June but the organisation said it was closely monitoring if the move marked the beginning of long-term rises (The Daily Mail). MySupermarket chief executive Gilad Simhony suggested it may point to final stages of the supermarket price war.
Former Asda CEO Andy Bond has ambitions to grow his new discount clothing chain to up to 1,000-stores (The Times). Bond opened Britain’s first Pep & Co store on Wednesday in Kettering, Northamptonshire, in the opening salvo in a blitzkrieg of 50 store openings in as many days. “We’ve got to make 50 stores work first, but nobody should feel that our ambition is 50 stores”, Bond said. “If this works then the analogy would be how many Iceland stores there are, how many Poundland say they can open? There seems to be a common theme of around 800 or 1,000 locations.”
A seasonal temperature of 1°C higher or lower than average can lead to a 1% change in sales, according to data from US-based The Weather Channel. In the £300bn UK retail sector, this could have a “devastating impact” equating to a loss, or gain, of about £3bn (The Telegraph).
No comments yet