Profits tumble at Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's has reported a fall in half-year profits, citing a "particularly challenging" market.
Underlying pre-tax profits for the 28 weeks to 26 September fell 17.9% to £308m. Retail sales, excluding fuel, were down 0.1%. Like-for-like sales fell 1.6%. Sainsbury's said food sales had declined by nearly 1%, but clothing performed strongly, with sales up by close to 10%.
CEO Mike Coupe admitted that "the grocery retail marketplace remains challenging" but said he was "confident we are making progress".
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Carlsberg to shrink workforce by 15% after Q3 loss
Carlsberg plans to cut about 2,000 jobs as the world’s fourth-largest brewer seeks to reverse a profit decline caused largely by the weakness of Russia’s beer market.
The move will reduce annual costs by as much as $288 million by 2018 and will cut staff by 15%.
Carlsberg is looking to reduce costs to compete with more profitable rivals such as ABinBev, which plans to take over SABMiller Plc in the beer industry’s largest deal. About 1,300 employees have already been notified of the job cuts, Carlsberg said.
Meanwhile, TCarlsberg has extended its supplier payment terms to 93 days, which the paper reports is outside of European guidelines.
The Forum of Private Business, which represents small businesses in Britain, said the new terms were "grossly unfair" and urged the government to take action.
AB InBev has reached an agreement with SABMiller over the terms of its takeover
It has announced that it will pay £44 ($66.7) per share for the London-listed drinks company valuing it at $105 billion.
As part of the deal, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016, AB InBev will not own SABMiller's U.S. business, selling off SABMiller's MillerCoors division and the Miller Global Brand Business to Molson Coors. The transaction is expected to be worth some $12 billion.
A combined AB Inbev/SABMiller would have controlled close to 70% of the U.S. beer market.
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M&S buys into 'Gucci look' to up fashion sales
After last week reporting sales in general merchandise (the majority of which is clothing) had fallen by 1.2% its fifth year of decline, M&S is looking to make its offering the most stylish yet.
It is introducing more hero products, such as a £199 green leather skirt, 14 different styles of white shirt, a soft suede olive biker jacket, also at £199 and dungarees.
"They’ve bought heavily into the Gucci look" and takes cues from Chloe the Telegraph reports.
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In case you missed it...two longer reads
Always #LikeAGirl, the powerful campaign that captured the female empowerment zeitgeist, has swept the board at the inaugural Marketing New Thinking Awards in association with Sky Media, scooping the Grand Prix and three category gongs.
As marketing – and the world at large – continues to face rapid change, marketers will need to reframe the issues of diversity and inclusion, transitioning from a moral matter of representation to a problem-solving necessity. Time for the #DiversityRevolution, writes Rebecca Coleman.
If you watch one video today...
Rather than a video, this week we're pointing you towards our new podcast. Listen to the second episode below and.
Belgian brewing giant AB InBev has reached an agreement with SABMiller over the terms of its takeover, announcing that it will pay £44 ($66.7) per share for the London-listed drinks company valuing it at $105 billion.
As part of the deal, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016, AB InBev will not own SABMiller's U.S. business, selling off SABMiller's MillerCoors division and the Miller Global Brand Business to Molson Coors. The transaction is expected to be worth some $12 billion. A combined AB Inbev/SABMiller would have controlled close to 70% of the U.S. beer market.
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