Retail Pulse - February 2019
Retail Burn
This month, we've got a mix of names featuring for several different reasons.
The most talked about retailers, according to the Retail Burn, include: Lidl, Home Bargains, The Fragrance Shop, Ikea and Byron all reporting positive news stories, and Halfords, Ed’s Diner, Paperchase, L.K. Bennett and Superfi where the news hasn't been so great.
The Retailer Database shows plenty of good news about Lidl. Lidl’s aggressive expansion plans are continuing apace with several openings scheduled in the months to come, having recently opened its latest and largest distribution centre in Doncaster. Lidl is also rolling out its ‘fun size’ trolleys for kids as it aims to make shopping more fun and engaging for kids.
At the other end of the scale is Superfi, becoming the latest victim of the high street downturn to appoint administrators and close all six stores at the beginning of February.
Hot 100
Pragma analyses retailer accounts to understand their financial health and sustainability. Those with good scores in these areas feature in our Hot 100.
The Hot 100 in February 2019 included;
Pandora; appointing a new CEO to drive its branding as it seeks to achieve an ambitious two-year transformation plan
Pret a Manger; opening its first two Belgian restaurants in August
Card Factory; opening at Hattersley Retail Park, Tameside
Smyths Toys; opening Warrington’s Junction Nine retail park in the autumn
B&M; upsizing its presence at Barnsley East Retail Park by 40%
Costa; opening a drive-thru unit at Hattersley Retail Park, Tameside
Dunelm; reporting a sharp rise in half-year profits and like-for-likes
KFC; rolling out pre-ordering and new Netflix-style recommendations across its UK operations
Retail News Index
The February RNI index for All Retailers, at 101, has increased by 6.
Leisure, at 109, has increased by 5.
Clothing & Footwear, at 91, has increased by 8
Household, at 101, has increased by 6
Personal, at 93, has decreased by 1.
Grocery, at 102, has remained the same.
Food & Beverage, at 103, has increased by 8.
Pragma on average reviews over 350 unique items of retailer news. Each article is scored according to sentiment. RNI is the sum of these scores indexed against 2005 and averaged over a three month period. The RNI time series for all retailers starts from May 2002.
Retailer Births & Deaths
There was 1 administration recorded in February: specialist audio-visual retailer Superfi.
There were 5 new additions to the Pragma Retailer Database in February: Farmer J, Immotion VR, Iris, Oodles Chinese and Three Joes.
Italian young fashion womenswear brand Subdued made its UK debut in February with the opening of its first store in London’s Carnaby Street.