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What does it take for 3PLs to deliver in today’s retail landscape?

Digital

We are firmly in the heart of retailers’ ‘golden quarter’, the period of October to December where consumers increase their shopping during Black Friday and the lead up to the

Lighting up retail’s winter season

Weekly Column

This week, the temperatures have plunged into single figures, snow has genuinely started falling and it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Halloween came and went, and faux cobwebs

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PEOPLE, LEADERSHIP & TALENT
TRENDS, STRATEGY & EMERGING MARKETS
CONCEPTS, MARKETING & CREATIVE DIRECTION
TECH & INNOVATION
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
ESG (ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL & GOVERNANCE)

Events & Thought Leadership

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The Beauty Game Changers

The MBS Group is delighted to partner with CEW for ‘The Beauty Game Changers’, where we have investigated what it takes to be a pioneering leader within the beauty sector....

EVENTS
Climbing the mountain: Reflections on the 2024 WiHTL & DiR Inclusion Summit
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Collaboration, commitment and community: reflections from WiHTL & DiR’s 2023 Inclusion Summit
The Bold women nominees pose for a group photo|Alexei Rosin
The Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award Ceremony 2023
|attendees seated at the event||
Launching the Women to Watch and Role Models for Inclusion in Retail Index 2023

Browse by sector

RETAIL
Looking across the water to the Seoul skyline at dusk|||Seoul sky line||||Shenzhen skyline in early morning light|Shinsegae building
Department stores, part II: the generation game
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Inclusion remains the nut to crack: tracking progress on D&I in UK retail
CONSUMER GOODS & SERVICES
The Beauty Game Changers
||L'Oreal office|||Paris government||
France 2024: Consumer businesses, coalition and compromise
FASHION, LIFESTYLE & LUXURY
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Homes, hotels and space ships: the exciting world of ultra-luxury interiors
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Are fashion companies giving D&I the attention it deserves?
DIGITAL
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AI: A serious ethical challenge for consumer businesses
Could the future of fashion be clothes that don’t exist?
PRIVATE EQUITY
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FTSE foibles: stopping London losing
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The future of M&A in beauty: why newness is no longer enough
TRAVEL, LEISURE & HOSPITALITY
The 2024 WiHTL & DiR Annual Report: Measuring the Impact of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in HTL & Retail
||Illustration|Pic of panel|audience pic
Origin stories and personal motivations: launching the Role Models for Inclusion in Hospitality, Travel, Leisure, and Retail 2024 Index

MBS News

RETAIL
Mothercare reports loss in latest results. The nursery specialist saw sales drop by 27% while pre-tax losses fell to £1.4m in the 26 weeks to 28 September. It attributed the fall to ‘continuing uncertainty in the Middle East’ and the need for franchise partners to ‘clear old inventory’.

Read more on Retail Gazette

H&M continues store expansion to the Dominican Republic. The new site has opened in Ágora Mall in the capital, Santo Domingo and marks the retailer’s first opening in the Dominican Republic. This follows its move in to the markets of Panama, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Read more on The Retail Bulletin

CONSUMER GOODS & SERVICES
Shiseido sees slowdown. Shiseido has reported a c.40% drop in earnings for 2023 after being impacted by China’s recovery post-Covid. Operating profits dropped from ¥46.5bn to ¥28.1bn. It said Japan’s decision to release treated radioactive water into the ocean had impacted sales.

Read more on Cosmetics Business

L’Oréal invests in To Summer. The French beauty giant has continued to invest in the Chinese market, after making a minority investment in the high-end Chinese perfume house To Summer. By the end of 2024, the Chinese beauty market is expected to reach €49bn.

Read more on Fashion Network

FASHION, LIFESTYLE & LUXURY
Balzac Paris expands its retail footprint. The sustainable fashion brand has opened in Marais, its third outpost in Paris. This tees up openings of stores throughout France, with its first outside of Paris set to open on 6 December in Toulouse and openings in Bordeaux and Lille set to follow.

Read more on WWD

Louis Vuitton brings back its Accessories Design Graduates Initiative. The second edition of the scheme, the Accessories Design Graduates Initiative offers recent graduates the opportunity to join Louis Vuitton’s teams. The company is looking for people to design leather goods, sunglasses and jewellery among other categories.

Read more on WWD

DIGITAL
Food delivery firm, Swiggy, expands to 400 locations across India. Swiggy has expanded its 10-minute food delivery service, Bolt, to over 400 towns and cities across India. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup went public last month, and has scaled up partnerships to over 40,000 restaurants, including KFC and Starbucks.

Read more on TechCrunch

Temu uses UK-based suppliers to shorten delivery times. Customers can now buy ‘local’ products – mostly furniture, tents and other bulky goods – from UK-based sellers on the ecommerce platform, meaning they can receive products in as little as one day. Temu also plans to open a London office.

Read more on Retail Gazette

PRIVATE EQUITY
Investor group to acquire HX. Expedition cruise brand Hurtigruten Expeditions is set to be acquired by a consortium of investors, including Arini Capital Management and Cyrus Capital Partners. The deal is expected to be finalised in early 2025.

Read more on Travel Mole

Argos Wityu acquires Italian bakery business. Investment group, Argos Wityu has acquired Italian bakery manufacturer Monviso, which has nearly 90 years of experience in the dry bakery industry. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Read more on Just Food

TRAVEL, LEISURE & HOSPITALITY
Brakspear profits better than pre-pandemic levels. For the year ending 25 December 2022, pub operator Brakspear saw profits and EBITDA ahead of pre-Covid levels. Underlying profit before tax recovered to £6.5m, compared to £5.8m in 2019.

Read more on Propel Hospitality

Haven investing £18m to create flagship site. Haven is investing £18m to transform a Kent holiday park into its flagship site with a new name and concepts. It forms part of the holiday park operator’s £170m development plan across its parks in 2023, with £230m already invested over the last two years.

Read more on Propel Hospitality

Arts Agenda & Recommended Reading

ARTS AGENDA
Image of London.
The Fashion Awards 2024
The Global Boardroom
A view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel and expedition centre in Singapore at sunset
AI Innovation Asia 2024
RECOMMENDED READING
a computer chip representing AI sits on a circuit board flashing with lights representing movement
TMT Predictions 2025: Bridging the gaps
How to do Black Friday more sustainably
The State of Fashion 2025

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