Grace Bowden
Grace is a reporter for Retail Week.
She covers a variety of sectors including value, sports & leisure, health & beauty and lingerie, as well as wider technology developments across retail.
She is interested in new appointments, store formats and how retailers are keeping pace with the myriad of technological developments across the industry, from their boardrooms to shop floors.
Contact info
- Tel:
- +44 (0)20 3033 4338
- Email:
- grace.bowden@retail-week.com
NewsGovernment hammers retail with £180m rate hike
Retail faces “yet another eye-watering rise in business rates” following the publication of September’s inflation figures.
- News
Footasylum staggers to half-year loss as sales rise
Footasylum has recorded a pre-tax loss at the half-year mark in what executive chairman Barry Bown described as “a difficult trading period”.
- Video
Watch: Asos’ voice shopping tech in action
Asos has teamed up with Google to launch its voice-activated shopping capabilities. Retail Week puts the tool through its paces.
- News
Shop Direct to axe Littlewoods Clearance, 150 jobs at risk
Shop Direct plans to shutter its Littlewoods Clearance division, which markets unsold stock from across the group’s retail brands, next February.
- Analysis
SWOT analysis: How can Boots regain momentum?
Boots was the blot on the copybook of Walgreens Boots Alliance’s fourth quarter results last week after recording declines across its pharmacy and retail divisions.
- News
Sports Direct acquires HoF Glasgow property for £95m
Sports Direct has bought House of Fraser’s property on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street outright in a bid to create the ‘Harrods of the North’.
- News
Hamleys plunges to £12m loss as sales fall
Hamleys has swung to a full-year loss in what chief executive Ralph Cunningham described as “one of the most challenging years in UK retail history”.
- News
Boots' fourth quarter sales fall as beauty stutters
Boots has recorded declines across its beauty and pharmacy sales, which Walgreens Boots Alliance attributed to “lower prescription volume and a decline in UK pharmacy funding”.
- News
Decathlon drops into the red despite sales rise
Decathlon has fallen to a loss in its full-year as competition from supermarkets hampered its like-for-like sales.
- Video
The Retail Week: Is the 'Amazon tax' right for retail?
Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has called for the Government to bring in the ‘Amazon tax’ – a 2% charge on online retailers’ revenue. The team discusses whether this is the right thing for retail right now.
- News
TK Maxx profits drop as it ramps up store estate
TK Maxx has recorded a decline in its full-year profits as it ploughed investment into its IT proposition and bolstered its bricks-and-mortar network.
- News
Pets at Home poaches Royal Mail exec for new data role
Pets at Home has snapped up the Royal Mail’s chief data officer Robert Kent to take on the same role, which is a newly created appointment for the retailer.
- News
Wilko swings to red as exceptional costs rack up
Wilko posted a pre-tax loss due to one-off costs as sales rose, in what chief operating officer Sean Toal described as a “tough trading environment”.
- News
Mountain Warehouse abandons Zakti store format
Mountain Warehouse is abandoning its Zakti standalone store format and will rebrand all of its existing shops in a reshuffle of its estate.
- Video
Watch: Inside Instagram's London pop-up
Instagram launched its first UK pop-up store to showcase its commerce capabilities. We spoke to the platform’s head of brand development about its retail ambitions.
- Video
The Retail Week: Has big ticket turned the corner?
After contrasting financial updates from ScS, Topps Tiles and DFS this week, the team discuss whether the big-ticket market has turned the corner.
- News
Walgreens to launch in-store pilot with Birchbox
US pharmacy giant Walgreens has acquired a minority stake in beauty subscription business Birchbox and will trial selling the beauty etailer’s range in-store.
- News
DFS profits plunge despite Sofology sales growth
DFS has reported a full-year profits slump, which outgoing boss Ian Filby attributed to “an exceptional downturn in market demand” in the fourth quarter.
- News
Ted Baker profits up despite 'challenging' market
Ted Baker has reported an increase in its interim profits and sales despite what boss Ray Kelvin said were “challenging external trading conditions”.
- News
Retailers not ready for Brexit, 80% of chairmen say
Brexit has spurred the highest level of pessimism in retail chairman since 2012 as over 80% say their businesses are not ready for Brexit.
