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Hotel Chocolat reported a group revenue increase of 15% year-on-year over the Christmas trading period. The company’s retail, online and wholesale channels all experienced growth in the 13 week period to December 30th. The retailer opened 15 new stores in the second half of 2018, taking their total UK store portfolio to 117. Angus...

Marks & Spencer has launched a new photo search feature on its mobile website. The new feature, called Style Finder, enables customers to upload an existing photo or take a new one of an outfit, and help the locate similar products form the M&S range in less than 10 seconds. Style Finder...

Dixons Carphone has described its Christmas trading as ‘solid’ following a 1% uplift in group like-for-like revenue. UK and Ireland electrical like-for-like sales rose by 2% in the 10 weeks up to January 5th.  The retailer has put this strong performance down to good sales in the TV, gaming, smart tech,...

Arcadia could be set to close a further 100 stores as leases on the units run out in late 2020.  This would follow 200 store closures since 2016. Many of the leases were signed in the 90’s and cover all of the company’s brands, including Topshop/Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis,...

Musclefood has named Gareth Jones as its new chief executive officer. Jones’ previous roles include deputy chief executive of Shop Direct and Chief Executive for Missguided.  He will take over from Musclefood founder Darren Beale as soon as he takes up his new part time non-executive role. Commenting on the appointment, Beale...

The Entertainer has reported an uplift in sales over the Christmas period. In the five weeks leading to December 29th, total sales were up by 22.4%. Saturday 22nd December was the company’s biggest trading day of the period.  Like-for-like sales climbed by 13.5% across the five weeks, with in-store like-for-like sales were...

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has placed a bid to buy HMV. HMV fell into its second administration in six years last month, placing 2,200 jobs at risk. Ashley has also recently purchased House of Fraser and Evans Cycles. His company also owns stakes in French Connection and Debenhams. Hilco, who saves HMV out...

N Brown has reported that sales for the 18 weeks leading to January 5th were down by 1.6%. The group said that product sales were down by 6% as it has continued to lower its marketing spend. Jacamo, Simply Be and JD Williams all out performed the rest of the business with a...

Primark’s sales rose by 4% in the 16 weeks to January 5th, and profits were ‘well ahead’ of the same period last year. The retailer has put the growth down to increased retail selling space, which was offset by a ‘modest’ decline is like-for-like sales. Sales in Primark’s UK business were up by...

Game Digital UK saw it’s like-for-like sales drop by 0.3% over the 7 weeks to January 5th.  Sales in Spain were up 4.8% in the period. The results meant that group like-for-like sales climbed by 2% during the seven week period, and by 1% in the first 23 weeks of the...