Spanish group El Corte Inglés is initiating the Sustainability Movement with the aim of building a healthy, sustainable and prosperous environment. The retailer has already begun this process: it is committed to having Zero Waste by 2022; 100% of the electricity it consumes already comes from renewable sources; it only works with suppliers that have shown their commitment to the environment and human rights; among many initiatives. The Sustainability Movement is focused on three areas: product, planet and progress. To this end, El Corte Inglés has developed a product guide with sustainability criteria for fashion, home, mass consumption, leisure and sports goods and accessories. Read more:

press release: El Corte Inglés launches the Sustainability Movement

Read also about El Corte Inglés' engagement against food waste (in Spanish):

press release: desperdicio alimentario

Upscale department store chain Fenwick has turned in a loss in its latest year as it invested in growth initiatives in the face of a tough market.

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Debenhams has landed a secured £50 million deal with some of its current lenders on largely the same terms as the £200 million loan it negotiated back in the spring. The company has the means to get products onto shelves and to market them to customers effectively right in time for the holidays season, which should be the biggest shopping season of the year.

The ability to order stock and for suppliers to feel confident that they'll be paid for what they supply is crucial for any retailer and having overflowing real or virtual shelves is key in grabbing consumer interest.

Six years after opening in Beijing, the new Galeries Lafayette store located in Pudong business district, offers 25 000 square metres of sales space combining fashion and catering. The group announced its intention to open four new stores in the country by 2025. Philippe Pedone, director of international development, said : "Pudong is a booming business area. For instance, it will host the head office of Alipay."

Galeries Lafayette will offer 250 brands, and 40% of retail space will be devoted to catering for the 60 000 people working in the area. The French Touch will be given by a 300 square metres bakery on the ground floor. The department store will focus on premium labels and not luxury fashion, and it will also sell a selection of French, local and international labels, including those of IT its partner in China.

Galeries Lafayette has not disclosed the amount of the investment or the revenue target but management confirms that the Beijing store has reached its forecasts.

The group is aiming to achieve 20% to 25% of its revenue from international operations, of which China should account for 60%. The group has identified the digital potential of the country and has already launched a mini-program on the WeChat platform used by 1 billion Chinese people.

press release : Galeries Lafayette Reinforces Position as a Leader in Fashion Curation in China

[…] Beyond the fashion category, the electricals and home technology department reported a 3.7% increase in sales, while a lift in sales of weighted blankets and duvets could not offset a 13.8% decline in home sales. Sales of Christmas products continued to rise ahead of the festive season, with loose baubles up 20% and toy sales rising 17%.

El Palacio de Hierro ends the first nine months of its fisal year on the rise. The Mexican department stores group noted net profit of 1,335 million Mexican pesos (69.9 million dollars) between January and September. Its profit represents for 5.7% of its consolidated revenues. The group's sales, meanwhile, stood at 23,559 million Mexican pesos (1.2 billion dollars), 5.2% more than in the same period last year. The gross operating result of El Palacio de Hierro increased 6.8% in the third quarter.

In the period, the company has renovated its Santa Fe and Perisur stores. In addition, the company has extended its presence in the region with the opening of a store in the state of Veracruz. In total, the group has increased its investment in Mexico by 50%.

The expenses of El Palacio de Hierro have decreased in the framework of its strategic growth plan. The company's expenses during the period stood at 27.7% of total revenues, compared to 28.2% in 2018.

The John Lewis Partnership board is reportedly mulling plans to restructure the business in order to streamline office roles, cut costs and bring its two retail chains closer together. The two retailers currently have separate HR departments, finance, marketing and procurement departments. They also have separate operating boards in three different head offices: one for Waitrose, one for John Lewis, and a third used for the partnership. Sir Charlie Mayfield – the outgoing chairman of the parent company of John Lewis and Waitrose – has drawn up plans to reduce duplication at the business to cut costs, which could lead to job losses as a result.

A spokesperson for the John Lewis Partnership said: "At our recent half year results we spoke about working as one business, with two brands. We are pressing on with this work and will share details in due course." The partnership's half-year report, published almost two weeks ago, showed it had swung to an underlying pre-tax loss of £25.9 million, compared to profits of £800,000 this time last year.The marked the partnership's first-ever half-year loss. Overall half-year revenue also took a hit, declining 1.4 per cent year-on-year to £4.78 billion. The partnership said its half-year losses were driven by widened operating losses at John Lewis, which increased to £61.8 million from £19.3 million a year ago as it suffered falling sales, surging costs of an IT overhaul and increasing cost inflation. Waitrose performed better, with underlying earnings increasing 14.7 per cent to £110.1 million, though like-for-like sales slipped 0.4 per cent year-on-year.

Macy's merchants are literally getting back in the classroom through an executive education program custom-created in conjunction with the New School's Parsons School of Design. It will train Macy's merchandising team to hone their design and merchandising skills, figure out ways to improve the customer experience and tackle pressing issues confronting the industry. It's not a degree program, and there's no grading or testing involved. It's a partnership between New School's Corporate Partnerships Initiative and Macy's to bolster the retailer's efforts at training and educating its Macy's merchandising team, both new hires and experienced executives. Macy's merchants will participate in at least one course on a quarterly basis. The programming with Parsons includes master classes, panel discussions and round table discussions.

In other talent-building efforts, Macy's this year relocated its executive training program from Cincinnati, where the company is based, to New York. And six months ago, a computer-based learning program called Ignite, covering hundreds of topics for Macy's merchants, was introduced.

Matahari department store of Indonesia has seen its market capitalisation fall from $4billion in 2016 to just over $600 million today. Its earnings have fallen by 25% during the period but the two reasons for the fall in value which are most cited are competition from online retailers, and corporate governance concerns relating to its parent company Lippo Group. Online companies Tokopedia, Lazada and Shopee, among others, are now major players in Indonesia's retail space. Some have developed partnerships with ride-hailing and fintech firms to improve the economics of shipping, and they are seen as a fast-developing threat for the future. Even though Matahari has been fighting back online, its e-commerce is still only the size of one of its stores. In addition, its parent company, Lippo Group has been caught up in a corruption scandal connected to a $21bn property project described as "the Shenzhen of Indonesia" in which bribes were allegedly paid to city officials in return for permits. The Meikarta project is meant to be the hub for the electronics and automotive sectors, a move away from an economy dominated by low-value industries, and which also includes universities, shopping malls, hotels and hospitals. Apparently investors are worried that Matahari, which is debt-free and generates strong cash, could be used to alleviate the Group's liquidity concerns.

Macy's is rolling out a free same-day delivery pilot program in 30 markets beginning on 1 October for qualifying purchases of $75 or more, for a limited time -however no timeline has been given for when the free option will end. Orders placed Monday through Saturday by noon local time, or 10 a.m. local time on Sunday, will be delivered the same day through an existing partnership with Deliv.

In 2014, Macy's launched same-day delivery with a fee in five markets for a limited selection of products. By 2017, the retailer had expanded same-day delivery to 33 markets, but the overall service underperformed. The new program covers "hundreds of thousands of products."

Similar to Walmart, Macy's played up the fact that shoppers do not need to be part of a paid subscription program like Amazon Prime to qualify for free deliveries.

Jill Ramsey, Macy's chief product and digital revenue officer, said Over the last two years, we've made significant investments in new technology in our stores and on our website that have given us the ability to better serve our customer's needs."

In the second quarter, Macy's reported its fortieth consecutive quarter of double-digit e-commerce growth.

Macy's relaunch comes as retailers are pushing the accelerator on speedier deliveries.

French department store group Galeries Lafayette received a series of awards within the past few days to celebrate several of their initiatives. At the 29th Enseigne d'Or ceremony, they received the award for:

• Architecture for the Galeries Lafayette Champs Elysées store
• Efficiency for Eataly in le Marais
• Man of the Year to Nicolas Houzé

In addition, the retail magazine LSA underlined the commitment to sustainability of Galeries Lafayette through their Go For Good inititative by giving them awards for:

• Responsible merchandising to Galeries Lafayette
• Best CSR product for Louis Pion's private label collection of watches under the Go For Good banner

Update on 04.09.19: Contrary to what had been reported earlier (see "Chinese stores suffer from online competition"), Takashimaya of Japan has changed its mind on closing its Shanghai store. The store has apparently gained support from the landlord, Changning District, and the city. The store trading on 40 000 m², will become a "high-quality department store", according to management. No further details have been made available on the nature of the support nor on the reasons for the change of heart, even after a loss in the year ended February 2019 of 8.6 million yuan, following several years of losses.

Published on 01.07.19: Takashimaya of Japan has announced it would close its store in Shanghai on 25 August. The announcement came soon after Carrefour sold an 80% stake of its Chinese business to Suning.com. Takashimaya, founded in 1831, operates 17 stores in Japan, and one each in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It entered China in 2012 in Shanghai's affluent Gubei area, and has made a loss for seven consecutive years. According to commentators, only some areas of Shanghai are appropriate for luxury retail. These include Nanjing Road West, Huaihai Road East and Lujiazui area in Pudong where Galeries Lafayette is now present.

Swedish department store giant Åhléns has launched a new independent beauty concept in Sweden, Beauty Bargain. Beauty Bargain offers a mix of established brand favorites as well as new and temporary brands. The focus is on beauty and well-being, but also on products that inspire and puts a spice on life. Beauty Bargain is launched online and in physical stores in parallel, starting in Göteborg.

r4873_9_selfridges_partners_with_british_cbd_body_and_wellness_start-up_grass__co.png

As CBD oil becomes increasingly important to the consumer products sector, Selfridges is aiming to get in on the trend and is linking up with premium British CBD wellbeing start-up Grass & Co.

The start-up, which has only been trading since July, is selling its body products (including products from its Ease and Calm collections) through the luxury department store's London and Manchester sites. The brand is also featured in the store's London Beauty Workshop, which gives it an extra boost as the area is a  focus on 28 brands from some of the most talked about new names in beauty and wellness. Selfridges also plans to stock Grass & Co's consumable CBD oil in the future. "CBD is one of the fastest growing well-being product categories in the UK. Grass & Co's brand values together with the quality and provenance of its product ingredients and commitment to ethical sourcing was a great fit for Selfridges," said Emily Saunders, the retailer's Beauty Workshop Buyer.

Grass & Co said the UK CBD industry is expected to be worth almost £1 billion a year by 2025, which is equivalent in size to the entire UK herbal supplement market at present. The company, which recently raised almost £1 million in seed funding, is headed by health supplements specialist Toby Gordon-Smith as CEO. Its products use organic hemp along with complementary botanicals and it said that demand from both consumers and retailers has "far exceeded" its initial projections since its launch.

CBD is having a major impact on both the beauty and wellness sectors and is a buzz ingredient in many new launches. This is something that's giving a wide range of international start-ups an entry point into luxury retail as they've reacted faster to the trend than have many established beauty players.

The Fitch rating agency has increased the rating of El Corte Ingles from BB to BB+. According to Fitch, the improvement in its valuation is a consequence of the right business strategy, a positive reduction of debt and financial flexibility. It is in line to reach the next level BBB- in less than a year and a half. The new rating will allow the group to continue diversifying and cheapening its financial sources.

The Hudson's Bay department store group has confirmed it will close its 15 stores in the Netherlands, as well as its e-commerce site and headquarters in the country by the end of the year. The confirmation comes three weeks after Dutch business daily Financieel Dagblad reported on the plans. The company says it has come to an agreement with local unions to offer solutions for the 1,424 employees impacted by the closure.

In June, the Canadian company sold its minority stake in its European operations – excluding the Dutch interests – to Austrian investment company Sigma, and took back sole ownership of the Dutch operation. It said at the time some stores would close. The owner of the Saks Fifth Avenue department stores entered Europe in 2015, buying Germany's Kaufhof chain, and began the Dutch operation in 2017.

press release: Hudson's Bay Stores to Close in the Netherlands

Selfridges of London has agreed a partnership with independent boutique cinema Olympic Studios to open a three-screen cinema in the store. According to management, this is a natural extension of the Selfridges aim of providing customers with extraordinary experiences all year round. The Cinema will have an entrance within the store as well as direct access from the street. It will schedule a mix of blockbusters and independent films. Some years ago, Selfridges opened a small pop-up cinema in the store which created quite a buzz.

El Corte Ingles of Spain has announced its results for the year to end February 2019: turnover was up 1.1% for the group to €15783m, while EBITDA increased 2.2% to €1075m. The retail business of the group, which is by far the largest activity, accounted for €12974m, an increase of 0.37%, with an EBITDA of €882m. This includes department stores, hypermarkets, the specialty chain Sfera, Bricor DIY and convenience stores. The second largest part of the group is the travel business with sales of €2722m, up 4.9% on the previous year.  The chairwoman struck a very positive note, issuing a reminder that El Corte Ingles is "a systemic company for the Spanish economy, creating wealth and jobs, catalysing ideas that are capable of creating innovative concepts, setting trends and placing us at the cutting edge. We have been doing this for almost 80 years. With enthusiasm, commitment, zeal and sensitivity; with innovation".

press release "Positive results at El Corte Inglés"

el corte inglés annual report 2018

According to Bloomberg, Austrian property owner Rene Benko (Signa) is seeking half a billion euros by selling shares, and a further 300 million euros in a bond offering as his purchase of Germany's Kaufhof department store chain nears completion.

Benko is apparently meeting investors in London, Paris and Frankfurt after he secured regulatory approval for the acquisition of the 50% stake in Kaufhof he didn't already own. The purchase is expected to close by the end of September.

Once the transaction is completed, total assets of his Signa Prime Selection AG will have grown tenfold in seven years, to 15.1 billion euros. The expansion has been funded by a series of private investors that included a Greek shipowner, a private bank from the Gulf, celebrity businessmen, wealthy European families and German insurers. Benko agreed to buy the Kaufhof stake from Hudson's Bay in June after acquiring the first 50% last year. The new funds are earmarked for "future asset acquisitions" and "to support Signa Prime's growth".

Nordstrom's Local concept made its New York debut with the opening of a roughly 1,800 sqft location on the Upper East Side. A second New York City Local will open in the West Village at the end of this month.

The novelty at these two "Nordstrom Local" concept stores is that they will accept merchandise returns from rivals like Macy's Inc. and Kohl's Corp., regardless of whether Nordstrom carries the same item. Nordstrom's decision to accept returns from its competitors is a first for the upscale department store chain, and is being made with the busy New York City shopper in mind. With a focus on services and eschewing products, Nordstrom's Local store concept is positioned as a convenience hub for consumers. [Accepting rivals' returns isn't a totally new concept: Kohl's has been allowing Amazon.com Inc. returns in its stores nationwide since July.]

The new "local" Nordstrom in New York will also offer services like shoe, handbag and small leather goods repair, charity drop-offs for used items, stroller cleanings, and serve as meeting spots "for networking and family driven events", in a bid to get customers in stores, whether or not they're buying.

The company, which already operates three stores under the new format in California, is also opening its Manhattan flagship location next month.

Traditional retailers like Macy's continue to fight an uphill battle due to dwindling foot traffic and shifting consumer demand for e-commerce and buzzy direct-to-consumer brands.

Performance in the second quarter of 2019 fell "well below expectations," citing surplus inventory as a "mounting problem" during the period. In an effort to clear excess product, the retailer made significant store-wide markdowns, contributing to a net sales drop to $5.546 billion from $5.572 billion at the same time last year. Same-store sales grew by 0.2%.

Jeff Gennette attributed Macy's inventory troubles to three main factors: low performance in sectors like women's sportswear, private labels, and home goods; slow sales of warm weather apparel; and a decline in international tourism.

Macy's CFO Paula Price said on the call that while the brand was "not pleased" with its performance, it's focusing on more strategic inventory allocation moving forward and she's confident it will make a bounce back.

Both Gennette and Price noted the industrywide challenges plaguing traditional retailers, as consumers flock to e-commerce and buzzy direct-to-consumer brands. In an attempt to attract younger, more eco-conscious shoppers, Gennette announced a pilot partnership with ThredUp, which will feature resale clothing in 40 select stores.

Additionally, Macy's-owned Bloomingdales is looking to capitalize on the booming rental industry with a recently announced rental program called My List, which Gennette said Macy's aims to emulate down the road.

An article in Simply Wall St looks at the debt of New World Department Store of China. In brief, it has liabilities totalling HK$4.19b more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined. However, New World Department Store China grew its EBIT by 19% last year, making its debt load easier to handle. Over the last three years, New World Department Store China recorded negative free cash flow, in total. Debt is usually more expensive, and almost always more risky in the hands of a company with negative free cash flow. The article concludes that it is not "comfortable" with the stock. However, although New World did not make a statutory profit in the last year, its positive EBIT suggests that profitability might not be far away. The company announced a change in CEO last August. The company currently operates a national network of 22 New World stores and 9 Ba Lin Chun Tian stores and malls in Shanghai.

La Grande Epicerie de Paris, sponsored by Le Bon Marché, has opened a small 25sqm shop in Parisian train station Saint Lazare. Dubbed La Petite Grande Épicerie de Paris, it brings together the essentials: breakfast pastries, lunchtime sandwiches and salads, takeaway dishes, plus a range of grocery products and wine & spirits.