Up-to-date coverage of the latest events in UK retail.
Amazon and Morrisons extend partnership
Amazon and Morrisons will expand their partnership to Amazon Prime Now members in cities across the UK.
‘Morrisons at Amazon’ is currently available to Prime Now members in London and parts of the home counties, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.
The service will be rolled out to cities including Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield and Portsmouth in 2019 and will expand further in the coming years.
The expansion will see Morrisons becoming a retailer on Amazon’s Prime Now website and app, and selling directly to customers. Morrisons will continue as a wholesaler for all of Amazon’s other UK grocery offers.
Majestic appoints John Walden as chair as it swings to loss
Majestic has appointed John Walden as its chair as it prepares to sell its core business to focus on Naked Wines.
Walden, the former boss of Home Retail and Argos, will join the business as chair-designate today. Incumbent Greg Hodder will step down after the business’ AGM in August and exit six months later after a handover period.
Majestic has also appointed the president of its US Naked Wines division, Nick Devlin, to the new position of group chief operating officer, a role he will fulfil from California.
The business reported rising full-year sales today but swung to a pre-tax loss of £8.5m compared to the £8.3m pre-tax profit it racked up the previous year.
Tesco like for likes nudge up as Booker boosts growth
Tesco like for likes inched up in its first quarter as its sales were boosted by its merger with Booker.
UK and Ireland sales rose 0.8% on a like-for-like basis and 1.3% on a total basis, reaching £11.16bn. However, UK total sales dipped 0.4%, though like for likes rose 0.4%.
Booker drove growth with like for likes up 3.1% and total sales up 12.4% to £1.51bn.
Tesco attributed the performance to investments in price, range and loyalty that it made as part of its ‘100 Years of Great Value’ campaign.
Sainsbury’s warehouse staff to strike over absence policy
Hundreds of Sainsbury’s warehouse staff are set to walk out amid a dispute over proposed changes to its absence policy.
Workers at the grocer’s Waltham Point distribution centre have voted in favour of industrial action, which will include “a series” of 24-hour strikes.
It comes after a ballot of 380 Usdaw members who work at the depot. Almost three-quarters of them backed plans to walk out.
Details of the policy Sainsbury’s has proposed are currently unclear. But Usdaw said it hoped that the supermarket giant would “return to the negotiating table” with a “significantly improved offer” in order to stave off the strike.