MBS Intelligence

Retail

Strategy Consultants: Your Time Has Come!

What do newly appointed Reckitt Benckiser CEO, Laxman Narasimhan, Sheryl Sandberg (COO at Facebook), Vittorio Colao (former CEO of Vodafone), Indra Nooyi (former CEO of PepsiCo, now on the Board of Amazon), John Donahoe...

Jo Whitfield: The Northern Star of grocery retail

Every year, when the time comes for me to nominate candidates for the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Awards, I live in hope that someone doing something extraordinary will emerge. This year, though, I was...

Make me happy: wellbeing in the workplace

Over the past few years, a growing number of businesses have begun to focus on wellbeing. Continued research in this space has created an ever evolving understanding of what drives the productivity of staff. There...

The Fruit and Veg King

There are certain things that have become part of my London history. Like the first time I went into the Harrods Foodhall and experienced the visual feast of retail theatre at its best, or the first time, in 1979 on...

‘Exit through the gift shop’ courtesy Banksy

As I was watching television last Sunday evening, amongst all the Christmas ads, up popped my new favourite: Visa’s ‘support your local high street’ campaign. My new favourite ad because, much to my joy, it...

With consumer spending rising, who’s getting it right in…

Like most new mothers, over the past few months I’ve become somewhat of an expert on the world of baby products. In the excitement of preparing for the arrival of our new bundle of joy, I’m guilty like many others...

Careful curation, expert advice and customer experience: the role…

Last month, Amazon became the second company in history to achieve a market capitalisation of more than $1tn. It did so because it provides customers ease, choice and value. It’s the same recipe that worked for...

Why do so many PLC NEDs have backgrounds in…

At The MBS Group we’ve been having a lively debate over the last few months about the past, present and future of PLC boards. It is certainly a complex topic, and not one that can easily be addressed in an 800-word...

A Customer Service Story (Part I)

I, like many consultants, attend talks and conferences in the hope of being inspired. Over the years though I have mostly been disappointed and have found the talks at conferences to generally be ‘bog standard’: a...

Latest Retail News

John Lewis’ own-brand labels boost summer sales The retailer saw a 7.2% increase in total fashion sales last week, with sales up 1.3% compared to the same week in 2018. The boost was attributed to a 6.6% increase in year-on-year sales of John Lewis’ own-brand fashion. Read more.

Travis Perkins prepares to sell Wickes by mid-2020 Allan Williams, Travis Perkins’ CFO, will be leading the project. The sale is currently estimated at between £400 to £500m. Despite recent drops in operating profits, Wickes reported strong first-quarter sales - up 9.4%. Read more.

Spectre Holdings confirms plans to delist Bonmarché Philip Day, owner of The Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Jaeger among others, has secured 93% of shares of the womenswear retailer. Bonmarché has over 300 stores in the U.K. and had originally been moved to a main market listing in October 2015. Read more.

Pets at Home forms partnership with pet-sitting service The pet supply retailer has acquired a stake in Tailster and will be rolling the service out to its 4.4 million VIP loyalty scheme customers. The move is part of Pets at Home’s plans for pet services to generate 50% of future revenue. Read more.

American Eagle partners with Lil Wayne The fashion retailer has produced a 25-piece collection composed of apparel and accessories, in collaboration with hip-hop artist Lil Wayne. Last year American Eagle partnered with Universal Music Group to highlight talent through digital content. Read more.

Bensons for Beds to extend range of environmentally-friendly products Since it launched the strategy last year, the bed retailer has seen around 40,000 beds taken for recycling. Bensons will extend its range of environmentally-friendly items after seeing a 96% sales rise in products that feature recycled materials. Read more.