John Lewis launched a new in-house range of 2,400 products on Monday. Called Anyday, for now it takes in homeware, technology, baby care and baby clothing.
News to dampen non-essential retail reopening day enthusiasm. Don’t expect those who’ve saved money over the past year to hit the spend, spend, spend button.
Next is on the next phase of its bid to become the complete lifestyle retailer. The UK fashion and homewares giant has announced a tie-up that sees DIY chain Homebase adding mini garden centres to its stores.
Hammerson is selling its UK retail parks to Canadian private equity firm Brookfield for around £350 million, according to one report. However, on Monday, Hammerson said any deal is far from being sealed.
April 12 sees the opening of McArthurGlen’s latest outlet centre with the debut of the £160m Designer Outlet West Midlands. The company said it’s the only standalone shopping centre to open in the UK this year.
Debenhams hasn’t disappeared from the high streets quite yet. Many of the almost-100 department stores still in existence will reopen for up to 33 days from 12 April, offering deep discounts to clear stock.
As shops in England return on Monday, Frasers Group will open a milestone development. It’s the first brand-new Frasers store in the UK with a debut in Wolverhampton.
Young consumers could be among those to most enthusiastically embrace a return to physical shopping next week, despite this consumer group also being the most comfortable with shopping online.
Pent-up demand to shop in a real store is simmering nicely and provides optimism for a bounceback from 12 April’s reopening. That’s the less-than-surprising view from the Springboard Footfall Monitor, released Thursday.
UK retailers seem to be unenthusiastic about the British government’s idea of Covid status certificates to allow people to enter certain locations.
Lacoste has joined forces with Léo Walk and Gary Neveu, the design duo behind the fashion brand Walk in Paris, to launch an 11-piece limited edition collection.
The Bluewater mall in Kent is upping its ‘another reason to visit’ appeal, preparing to offer consumers a host of new outdoor attractions, including England’s “longest and fastest” zip wire.
Joules has ended its search for a new chief financial officer, appointing Caroline York to the post. She joins the family lifestyle retailer no later than September from price comparison business Moneysupermarket Group.
The H&M Home x Diane von Furstenberg collection launches next week featuring the “bold prints that von Furstenberg is renowned for, such as zebra and leopard, a kissable lip pattern and abstract signature lettering”.
Predictions of poor Easter Weekend retail footfall ahead of the reopening of non-essential retail on 12 April were wide of the mark as activity across all destinations for the latest week increased again, figures show.
