Shop prices rise in November spurred by food prices as H&M shutters its Cheap Monday fascia and Amazon opens its third Amazon Go store.
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07:35am MPs grill fast fashion retailers on cost and sustainability
Retailers including Primark, Asos, Boohoo and Missguided defended their practices to the Commons Environmental Audit Committee yesterday.
Boohoo boss Carol Kane and Primark head of ethical trade and sustainability Paul Lister both justified the sustainability of selling £5 dresses and £2 respectively, with the former saying these items were a small proportion on their sales and a loss-making exercise to drive traffic.
07:21am Findel records interim profits and sales rise
The online retailer recorded a 2.3% increase in adjusted pre-tax profit to £11.6m driven by a 1.7% boost in revenue to £228.2m.
Its largest subsidiary, Express Gifts, trading online as value retailer Studio, recorded a boost in active customer numbers from 1.8m to 1.9m year-on-year while product revenue increased 1.2%.
Chief executive Phil Maudsley said: “This has been a period of continued progress and profit growth, driven by Studio’s hugely attractive customer proposition as a digital-first, value retailer.”
07:09am Amazon opens third Go store in Chicago
The online retailer has opened its third Amazon Go store and second in Chicago just three months after it opened its first shop in the city.
The store is Amazon’s second outside of its Seattle headquarters.
07:03am H&M to close down denim brand Cheap Monday
The fashion giant will axe the brand, which it snapped up in 2008, with around 80 jobs at risk as a result.
A statement from the retailer said: “Cheap Monday has a traditional wholesale business model, which is a model that has faced major challenges due to the shift in the industry.
“There has been a negative trend in the Cheap Monday’s sales and profits for a long time. The H&M group therefore intends to close down Cheap Monday.”
06:47am Shop price inflation returns for third month in five years
Shop prices edged up 0.1% year on year in the period from November 5 to November 9 in comparison with a 0.2% fall in October, according to the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index.
Food prices rose to 1.6% this month in comparison with 1.3% in October.
At 0.8%, non-food prices recorded the lowest rate of deflation since March 2013.