John Lewis Partnership has announced results for the year ending 27 January 2018. These were better than many, but showed a large fall in profits on almost static like-for-like sales. Waitrose sales were up 1.8% to £6.75bn, a like-for-like increase of 0.9%. The John Lewis department stores outperformed the market with a sales growth of 2.2%, or 0.4% on a like-for-like basis, at £4.84bn. Exceptional items for restructuring and redundancy caused the Partnership profit before bonus and tax to be reduced by 67.2%. The Partnership bonus was 5% of salary.

See press release of John Lewis results

See recording of announcement 

Macy's said it will sell the top half of its State Street flagship store in Chicago for $30 million, and the buyer plans to convert the space into offices. The announcement confirms a Tribune report in October that Macy's had struck a preliminary deal to sell floors 8 through 14 to Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management. Of the $30 million Macy's will receive, $3 million will be dedicated to improvements. The retailer said it also stands to benefit financially from the conversion of the upper floors to offices.

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In the age of sustainable fashion, German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has been criticised by environmentalists after reportedly chopping down several old oak and poplar trees for his Chanel AW18/19 catwalk show. Indeed, he turned the vast glass nave of Paris's Grand Palais into an autumn forest for the event, strewing dead leaves, moss and logs on a mirrored runway and installed nine tall trees inside. Some 508 poplar wood benches were also made for his guests. France Nature Environment group (FNE) denounced the extravaganza as 'heresy'. "Chanel has missed the point once again. The celebrated fashion house chose to present a 'natural' decor with real trees for its haute couture event. The result: trees, some of them a hundred years old, were chopped down for a few hours of show," FNE said in a statement. Stung by the criticism, Chanel issued a vehement riposte, insisting that none of the oak and poplar trees it sourced legally from a forest in western France were 100 years old. "In buying the trees Chanel also promised to replant 100 new oak trees in the heart of the same forest," the brand added in a statement.

This is not the first time that Chanel has raised the hackles of environmentalists; last year they protested its PVC-themed collection at a time when plastic pollution is a hot topic.

Zara, Inditex's flagship brand, has launched a women's capsule collection where its logo takes centre stage. This is the first time the company is using its corporate image to sell products. The edit includes a sweatshirt that reads 'Zara Woman SS//18', a white t-shirt carrying the same logo, a printed midi dress with an asymmetric hem and a t-shirt with an all-over logo print.

The capsule collection marks a new approach for Zara, which has never printed its logo on products before, and suggests the company is moving towards repositioning its logo as an object of desire. Or it could also mean that the brand is joining the logomania trend, championed by designer brands including Gucci, Dior and Michael Kors this season.

See pictures of Zara logo centred collection

see 'Let's go logo' exhibition at Le bon marché

read article 'are you logo?'

Opened since 17 March in Paris, Lafayette Anticipations foundation's mission is to support contemporary, international creation in the fields of art, design and fashion. The Foundation is based in a 19th century industrial building located in the heart of the old Marais district, in Paris, and renovated by Rem Koolhaas and his architectural firm OMA. The central courtyard of the 2, 200 m2 space features a steel and glass "exhibition tower" composed of four mobile platforms. The moveable elevator floor running on vertical tracks gives endless variations of surface, floor, seating, and stage. The innovative play of the platforms allows the space to be reconfigured in over forty different permutations.

The foundation is located 9 rue du Plâtre, in the heart of the Marais district in Paris.

website of galeries lafayette anticipations

announcement from galeries lafayette

WE WISH ALL OUR MEMBERS A HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

Illustration 'Chinese New Year 2018' (png - 0.25Mo)

Shares at H&M have reached their lowest level since the financial crisis after the retailer admitted to making "mistakes". The group has abandoned its sales target for 2018 and the CEO and grandson of the founder, Karl-Johan Persson has conceded that last year had been "a disappointment". In his words, "we know what to do, we just haven't executed well enough". The company will close 170 shops in the year but will open 390, leading to a net addition of around half the number of last year. The company also admitted that it was having trouble mastering e-commerce. While shares were down at H&M, shares at rival Inditex, which overtook H&M as the world's biggest clothes retailer six years ago, have doubled in that time. H&M has ended the year with a net debt for the first time in over two decades.

Nordstrom announced the launch of a home collection as part of Treasure & Bond, the company's give-back brand that donates 2.5% of net sales to non-profit organisations empowering youth. The home collection will feature a fresh table-top assortment including ceramic dishware, artisanal cheese boards and textured glass pieces, as well as bedding, stylish throws and pillows, with pricing that ranges from $45-$199. The Treasure & Bond product assortment also features women's apparel, footwear, handbags and accessories, in addition to men's, girls' and boys' apparel.

The give-back brand closed 2017 with a $1 million donation to YWCA USA and Canada, marking the largest gift to-date from Nordstrom through Treasure & Bond, and bringing its total donation from sales of the brand to more than $2.4 million since 2014. According to Jennifer Jackson Brown, president of Nordstrom Product Group, "Treasure & Bond represents an integral part of our charitable giving strategy and we are committed to partnering with organizations like YWCA and WE Charity whose work empowers youth across North America." Treasure & Bond is available in Nordstrom stores and online at Nordstrom.com.

press release

As it reported its worst plunge in profits in six years, Swedish company H&M announced that it will soon debut a new off-price marketplace called Afound. It describes the news outlet as a "style- and deal-hunting paradise" that will sell discounted clothes and lifestyle items from H&M group's own labels, which include offshoots such as COS, & Other Stories and Cheap Monday, as well as external labels. The off-price marketplace is set to offer a selection of season-less products from a broad price spectrum in both online and in physical stores. Although Afound will sell clearance product from within the H&M family, the focus will be on external brands. "The main idea is to bring something new to the off-price market, which is huge and growing. There is a great opportunity for Afound to take a big part of the market with a well-curated and wide assortment. It will offer stylish product and great deals" said the group's chief financial officer Jyrki Tervonen. H&M had reportedly already signed on 63 brands, although the exact brands have yet to be confirmed.

"We see big potential for Afound and are looking forward to introducing the marketplace to our audience in Sweden in 2018. Afound cares about both the value of the products and the mix. And by offering personal style inspiration, quality labels, and the sense that you're getting a really good deal, Afound will offer a new form of off-price experience", said Fredrik Svartling, Managing Director of Afound.

The first Afound store is set to open on Drottninggatan in Stockholm and its opening will coincide with the launch of Afound's digital marketplace in Sweden.

The Diesel brand has opened a pop-up store selling "fake" products. In a return to its old ironic roots, the owner, Renzo Rosso, who is also president of parent group OTB which owns brands such as Maison Margiela, Marni and Vivienne Westwood, says that "Diesel is back". The store, on Canal Street in New York, is part of a campaign focused on embracing imperfection. It appeared to be a fraudulent operation but, unbeknownst to customers, the seemingly fake products were actually authentic, limited edition Diesel items. Even the store name was misspelt Deisel.

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Barneys New York is closing a store on Broadway between 75th and 76th Streets on the Upper West Side of New York City. The store, one of three in the city and smaller than the other two, will close on 18 February, 2018.

Like many of its department store peers, Barneys has worked to upgrade the concept of a department store and was actually ahead of many in forging a shoppable Instagram page back in 2015. But the company was traded several times among private equity firms and now seems to have gained control over an overwhelming debt load.

While department stores in general are under pressure, Barneys does have some advantages over its larger rivals. It is leaner and possibly nimbler, has reaped the benefits of being a luxury retailer with just a few locations, almost exclusively in downtown centres of larger cities. Barneys has also worked to rationalize its assortment to differentiate its merchandise and avoid heavy discounts. Two years ago, for example, the company offered 41% fewer new handbag lines over the holidays, after boosting its assortment by 46% the previous year.

The company, like many department stores, has also seen sales rise in its off-price Barneys Warehouse unit. Under private ownership, it's not clear how Barneys is doing these days, although Fortune in 2016 declared the company had staged "a remarkable comeback." That year, the company opened a store on the same block in lower Manhattan where its flagship stood for three quarters of a century.

The value of Walmart, the biggest world retailer, fell $3bn. Shares lost 10% at one point on 20 February. The company which has been investing heavily in e-commerce in an attempt to counter Amazon, managed only a small increase in online sales which now account for 4% of total sales. It has been investing more in its own site while reducing marketing spending on Jet.com, the start-up it acquired in 2016 and whose customers are mostly higher-income millennials in cities such as New York. Walmart cited competitive pressure as well as logistical problems. Interestingly, logistics was also cited by H&M as a weak point in its e-commerce operations (see news article on H&M below). It would appear that this area is one of considerable vulnerability for traditional retailers entering the online world. Combined with this is the fall in margin which accompanies the growth of online sales: customers online contribute less.

American department store Macy's announced that it will be working with an Islamic boutique called "Verona Fashion" to stock a modest fashion line dubbed Verona Collection. It includes dresses, pants, cardigans, tops, headscarves, hijabs and abayas, a loose garment popular in Islamic fashion. "Verona Collection is more than a clothing brand," the company's founder, Lisa Vogl, who was inspired to start the company from her own experience of trying to find clothing that was both conservative and comfortable, and falling short. "It's a platform for a community of women to express their personal identity and embrace fashion that makes them feel confident on the inside and outside." The partnership stemmed from the retailer's The Workshop at Macy's initiative, which aims to foster and support minority-owned and women-owned businesses into potential future retail partners – program in which Verona Fashion participated. Verona's Macy's collection will be available online and in Macy's stores starting on 15 February, and prices are expected to range from $12.95 to $84.95. Though the line is designed primarily with Muslim shoppers in mind, its range of wearable styles works for consumers of any background.

press release

The Queen has attended her first fashion show in London. The 91-year old monarch sat next to Anna Wintour who was wearing her trademark dark glasses. The show was Richard Quinn's show, the last of the London Fashion Week and his second ever. The Queen then presented Quinn with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II award for British design. A short time before, it had been announced that designer Richard Quinn had signed up to Designers at Debenhams. Debenhams has long been collaborating with design talent to create collections that appeal to the high street. It is a compelling part of the Debenhams business and this timely collaboration brings fresh and unique aesthetic to the store's offer.

>> Read Debenhams annoucement below

Debenhams announcement

Illustration 'The Queen at Quinn fashion show' (png - 0.75Mo)

Macy's has developed a new pop-up concept, dubbed "The Market @ Macy's," set to launch next week in 10 cities. The program gives pods of space to a handful of brands and companies on Macy's ground floor to promote or sell their products. It is aimed at giving Macy's customers more variety to their shopping and insight into what they like. For their branded partners, it bestows an opportunity to have brick-and-mortar presence they may lack. Macy's distinguishes the Market from traditional pop-ups in that the department store carries the heavy lifting: Sales associates working for the Market will work exclusively to service the brands, an offer of particular use for companies without retail experience. Macy's also offers the potential to scale through its footprint and a flexible approach to timing, allowing pop-ups to stay as little as a month. Brands pay a one-time fee for the space and retain all their sales, and most, but not all, of the brands will be unique to the city they are in.

Seeking to attract a younger, digitally inclined tween generation, J.C. Penney is launching Obsess, a private fashion brand with "rotating capsules" inspired by influential young women promoting a positive body image. In its announcement, Penney's said the first Obsess collection will be a collaboration with Olympic Gold Medalist gymnast Laurie Hernandez and include trendy tops, rompers, dresses and jeans for all body types. Obsess will launch at jcpenney.com and be available in 500 Penney's stores beginning March 2. "Obsess is a very unique brand that allows J.C. Penney to reach a generation of girls who move rapidly from one fashion trend to another, as they discover new style inspiration through daily social media feeds," said James Starke, Penney's senior vice president of merchandising. "By working with inspiring young women like Laurie Hernandez for unique capsule collections under the Obsess brand, J.C. Penney is able to offer tween girls the fresh styles they crave. As we focus on driving business to J.C. Penney, we have an opportunity with Obsess to attract an entirely new, and often elusive, Generation Z customer. Gen Z holds $44 billion in buying power and is on track to become the largest consumer segment over the next few years, representing significant sales growth potential."

press release

Harrods has partnered with Tencent's strategic partner My Money to roll out the WeChat digital payment system at Harrods Knightsbridge and its airport retail stores. WeChat pay is ubiquitous in China. It allows users to instantly send money to their contacts or, by scanning a QR code, to all kinds of retailers, from fruit vendors to restaurants to fashion retailers. Harrods' announcement comes as good news for Chinese travelers visiting the UK, who recently found out they were missing out on significant discounts due to discriminatory policies at Heathrow Airport's duty-free stores* – According to the China Tourism Academy, 115,000Chinese tourists visited the UK in the first half of 2017.

Harrods has been strategic in its efforts to reach Chinese shoppers. They've recruited more than 200 Mandarin-speaking staff, and even redesigned their floor plan — adding a new fine watch room and changes to the jewelry department — with Chinese shoppers in mind. They were also quick to adopt other Chinese payment methods, accepting cards from China Union Pay in 2010 and payments using Alibaba's Alipay in 2016.

*Chinese charged more at Heathrow: Heathrow Airport is under fire after it was claimed that World Duty Free shops discriminated against Chinese travellers. Customers from China were offered a 20 per cent "VIP" discount if they spent £1,000 in-store, other shoppers were offered the discount for a spend of just £79.

The Nama department store company occupies a special place in Zagreb culture. It used to consist of eight department stores in Zagreb. It was the largest retail chain in the country. Originally founded by Kastner and Oehler of Austria in 1879 during the Austro Hungarian empire, it brought the revolutionary department store shopping ideas to what would become Yugoslavia after WWI. It also introduced catalogue sales and mail order. It was later nationalised under the name Narodni Magazin (Nama). There are only two stores left: one in the historic building which used to be a hotel on Ilica, and another on Kvaternikov square. The latter was opened in 1968 and around 150 ex-employees recently gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the store. Many spent most of their working lives in the store, and some were sent to Germany for extra training. In local memory, Nama department stores stand for luxury in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shoppers Stop of India has announced that it will open five more department stores in 2019, as well as a dozen beauty format stores. The company is targeting a 7.5 to 8% like-for-like growth in the coming year and a 10 to 11% top line growth. Furthermore the company should be completely debt-free by Q3 2019. Shoppers Stop catalogue will be on the amazon.in website by April-May this year. The US Amazon acquired a 5% share in Shoppers Stop last year. According to management, they have not discussed an increase in stake with Amazon.

Luxury brand Chanel has taken a minority stake in London-based online retailer Farfetch. The luxury goods company is interested in trying to expand its digital services to court younger more tech-savvy clients. Under the deal, Chanel will not sell its goods through Farfetch but will work with the platform on digital innovations linked to customer services. These could include smartphone apps allowing people to flag their preferences and sizes before visiting a store, or located items spotted in magazines, for example. The move, according to Chanel, is about enriching the relationship with customers. Other investors in Farfetch include Chinese online retailer JD.com, French investment company Eurazeo and Singapore state investor Temask.

The Bon-Ton regional US department store chain, based in Milwaukee and York, Pennsylvania, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, which operates around 260 retail locations, recently laid out plans to close more than 40 stores across the US under its various banners (Carson's, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's, and Younkers). It is currently negotiating a restructuring plan with potential investors. Analysts have described the retailer as "undifferentiated, unclear, and increasingly irrelevant to consumers". Bon-Ton has revealed plans to invest more in private-label brands, refresh the overall store layout, ditch excess inventory, and strengthen its e-commerce business.

The Galeries Lafayette group has won the tender to manage 11 luxury watch stores located in Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly airports until 2026 through Royal Quartz Paris, its watchmaking brand. Royal Quartz Paris has been operating in the Paris airports since 1995 and already won the previous call for tender in 2011. In addition, Royal Quartz Paris is reinventing itself and unveiling a new brand its new name: Galeries Lafayette-Royal Quartz Paris. This new identity combines the reputation and international influence of the Galeries Lafayette brand with the historical expertise of Royal Quartz Paris in watchmaking and travel retail industries.

press release

Canadian family-owned store La Maison Simons has opened its first "net zero energy" flagship in Quebec City's Galerie de la Capitale mall. After six years of trial and error, the C$ 25m , 80 000 sq ft store can generate as much energy on-site as it consumes annually. Hundreds of types of LED lights were tested with the aim of reducing consumption. Twenty seven geothermal boreholes were drilled under the shopping centre to pull heat from the ground in the winter and cool the store in the summer. Inside the store, which replaces an existing one, customers can recharge their phones at "We Watt" stations using stationary bicycles. Art also plays a role with large sculptures made of branches, papier maché and recycled fabric. The store is addressing the concerns of its millennial customers as well as its older shoppers. Simons operates 15 stores across Canada including nine in Quebec as well as Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Mississauga and Ottawa.

Debenhams UK department store company has announced that it will step up cost-cutting plans, in particular by reducing the complexity of management roles. Thus 320 store management jobs will be cut with redeployment opportunities wherever possible. The company said that the new structure should be fully in place by the end of March. Debenhams, which operates over 240 stores in 27 countries, experienced a difficult holiday season, as did many other UK retailers.