Welcome back to The Uptick, Retail Week’s monthly newsletter bringing a fresh perspective on retail to your inbox by focusing on the stories, people, innovation and inspiration that make the sector such a vibrant place to be.

We launched this newsletter as an inbox antidote to the doom and gloom that too often dominates retail headlines and instead home in on the ingenuity of a sector that is rapidly transforming. The Uptick will highlight real solutions to some of retail’s biggest challenges and shine a light on the industry’s success stories.

This month we’re looking at a UK retail success story as James Daunt sets his sights Stateside; why John Lewis’ appointment of incoming chair Sharon White rips up the rule book; seven retailers defying sales downturns and opening stores; and whether Ocado’s foray into vertical farming will revolutionise the grocery sector.

Fresh thinking

June was a month of innovation in grocery as supermarkets came up with new ideas of how to operate their businesses and appeal to their customers.

Upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose went back to basics with the trial of a packaging-free concept store with a total of 160 loose, packaging-free fresh product lines and a frozen ‘pick and mix’, while Sainsbury’s trialled the UK’s first meat-free butcher in a Shoreditch pop-up shop.

SainsburysMeatFreeEdit_09

Sainsbury’s opened a pop-up meat-free butcher in east London

Ocado’s latest idea goes beyond a pop-up shop and into the possible future of the grocery supply chain, however. The etailer is investing £17m into two ventures in vertical farming in Ohio and, er, Scunthorpe.

Boss Tim Steiner hailed the investment as part of the grocer’s vision to “co-locate vertical farms within or next to” its automated warehouses in order to “offer the very freshest and most sustainable produce that could be delivered to a customer’s kitchen within an hour of it being picked”.

We examine whether the only way is up for grocery’s latest innovation or whether it’ll go to seed in years to come.

Tesco boss Dave Lewis was also full of beans in June as he unveiled his plans to coax further growth at the supermarket titan. We look at his plans, from possible new formats to bolstering loyalty and spend among Clubcard holders.

Cartooon 19 June 2019

New people and new opportunities

You couldn’t be blamed for looking at the likes of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt and thinking the UK is out of strong leaders – but there are retail bosses offer a refreshing alternative to the parade of ineptitude on display in our political sphere.

First, Waterstones boss James Daunt has landed himself a new gig after making a success of bricks-and-mortar bookselling in the UK despite the onslaught on Amazon.

Daunt, who has run Waterstones since 2011, has been appointed as chief executive of struggling US bookseller Barnes & Noble.

We examine how Daunt plans to make a success of the US retailer and what wisdom he will bring from Waterstones, which has returned to profitability under his stewardship.

Dreams boss Mike Logue also spoke exclusively to Retail Week as the specialist retailer unveiled its fifth consecutive year of rising sales and profits.

He tells us why he continues to invest in innovation, the necessity of good marketing and why he has no plans of leaving Dreams to bed down elsewhere anytime soon.

And after much speculation, John Lewis unveiled the successor for chair Sir Charlie Mayfield. Far from a sector lifer, the incoming chair Sharon White comes to the role from Ofcom with no direct retail experience.

We look at why her appointment “tears up the rule book” and what it signals about the department store chain’s ambitions.

High street heroes

You needn’t look far for doomsday headlines about the future of the high street and the increasingly shaky ground bricks-and-mortar retailers operate on.

Those looking for a palate cleanser can peruse our list of seven retailers bucking the trend and opening stores, from The Co-op to Mountain Warehouse.

The controversial restructuring mechanism of CVAs has had a chequered history in terms of their ability to legitimately reinvigorate a retailer’s performance. Against this backdrop, we examine the most recent results of New Look and Carpetright, both of which launched CVAs and went on to deliver improved sales and profits.

Health and beauty retailers did their bit to reinvigorate the offline shopping experience for customers. We look around Lush’s tech-fuelled, four-floor Tokyo anchor store and spoke to Boots boss Seb James about how he plans to reignite sales growth for the retail giant at the opening of its new-look London flagship.

Lush Shinjuku Tokyo (4)

Lush opened a new hi-tech store in the Japanese capital

One last thing

Take a look at our annual ranking of retail’s most influential players in our Retail 100 list.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the latest instalment of The Uptick newsletter. If there are stories, innovations, people or inspiration you want to us to write about, please get in touch.

Grace Bowden, head of content