UK discount retailer Wilko faces collapse unless it finds a last-minute buyer or investor amid “mounting cash pressures” (Financial Times £).
The retailer, which has around 400 stores, said that it was primed to appoint administrators after struggling to find a financial lifeline (Mail).
The privately-owned chain, which sells everything from stationery to garden furniture, has filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators at the UK’s High Court (The Times £).
PwC has been working with Wilko in recent months to try to find a buyer in an attempt to secure additional cash needed by the end of this month to keep trading (The Guardian).
The discount retailer said it was in talks over a rescue deal, but had yet to receive an offer which would provide it with enough liquidity in the time it has available as it battles “mounting cash pressures” (Telegraph £).
BBC News asks: “What has gone wrong at Wilko?”
Wilko CEO Mark Jackson said the business had so far failed to secure any offer that would save it from running out of cash. Read the full story in The Grocer.
Marks & Spencer is turning its attention to the North East after plans for a multimillion-pound regeneration of its Oxford Street store were blocked by levelling up secretary Michael Gove (Telegraph £). The retailer unveiled plans to invest £13m across its shops in the North East of England, including the redesign of its store in Newcastle city centre, which first opened in 1932.
Anheuser-Busch InBev has reported a steep drop in sales of its Bud Light brand after a collaboration with a transgender TikTok personality prompted a conservative backlash in the US (The Financial Times £).
Anheuser-Busch InBev said revenues in its key US market dropped 10.5% in the second quarter, “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light” (The Times £).
After Bud Light falling on its face, The Times (£) takes a look at other examples of brands getting it wrong.
Blur’s Alex James has launched an English sparkling wine and is breaking with tradition by recommending that it is served with ice cubes (The Times £).
Diageo vs Diddy spat exposes risks of celebrity deals, runs a headline in Financial Times (£). Accusations fly ahead of hearing to establish whether case between drinks giant and rapper should proceed to trial.
Pets at Home shrugged off cost of living pressure in its first quarter as sales and customer numbers continued to climb (Mail).
Pets at Home has reported higher sales as people continue to splash out on cats and dogs they bought during the pandemic, despite the squeeze on incomes (The Times £).
The Bank of England has raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 5.25% and warned that borrowing costs are likely to remain elevated despite slowing inflation (Financial Times £).
Rishi Sunak is under mounting pressure from Conservative MPs to boost the UK’s struggling economy after the Bank of England signalled that there will be no respite from the high interest rates hitting households and businesses until well into next year (The Guardian).
Britain’s era of cheap food has come to an end, economists have said, as the Bank of England warned grocery price inflation will remain in double digits until the end of the year (Telegraph £).
A Guardian editorial on high interest rates says the Bank of England’s new normal is also proving brutal for businesses in several sectors, including Wilko, which has suffered from the fatal combination of rising prices and higher borrowing costs inescapably hitting consumer spending.
Stronger-than-expected online sales and signs that the slowdown in its cloud computing division had bottomed out lifted Amazon’s sales and earnings well above Wall Street predictions in the latest quarter (Financial Times £).
Amazon last night forecast third-quarter revenue above Wall Street expectations, boosted by its biggest ever Prime Day sale in July that drew price-conscious consumers to its ecommerce platform (The Times £).
The tech giant said its Prime Day sales event over July 11-12 was its largest ever, saving customers $2.5bn (£2bn) on deals (Telegraph £).
The world’s biggest online retailer posted sales of £106bn for the three months to June, 11% higher than in 2022 and above the £103bn predicted by analysts (Mail).
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