Drapers
12 December 2008
View all stories from this issue.
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1.5 million shoppers hit London's West End
More than 1.5 million shoppers visited London's West End on Saturday, when Oxford Street and Regent Street were closed to traffic. -
A little paid advice can go a long way
During these tough times caused by the credit crunch, one temptation for a small business is to cease spending on development. -
Amanda Wakeley bought by former Agilo investor
Amanda Wakeley, the premium womenswear label, has been bought by Jason Granite, a former investor in distressed assets fund Agilo, which holds stakes in Envy and Faith. -
Analysts cut price targets for JJB Sports
Analysts have cut price targets for JJB Sports and recommended that investors sell shares, in the wake of deteriorating trade. -
Anderson Menswear to close
Menswear indie Anderson Menswear is to close after trading for 245 years on Blake Street in York. -
Asda warns of frugal shoppers
Asda chief executive Andy Bond has warned that consumers' shopping habits will change as a result of the current downturn, with frugality set to replace frivolity over the years to come. -
Atlantic to go into liquidation
Value chain Atlantic Fashions posted a letter to its staff as Drapers went to press, confirming that the business would be liquidated following a court hearing later this month. Parent company Acton Farm is unable to offer its workers any redundancy pay. -
Blacks agrees deal to exit O'Neill wholesale
Blacks Leisure has agreed a deal to transfer its UK O'Neill wholesale business to O'Neill Europe. -
Bleu Blanc Rouge
Bleu Blanc Rouge is a contemporary womenswear range from France, and in case your holiday French is letting you down, it is named after the blue, white and red colours of the French flag. -
BRC chairman makes play for Woolworths
Sir Geoff Mulcahy, the tycoon who bought Woolworths in 1982, wants the chance to revive the value chain and save hundreds of jobs according to a report. -
Choice opens Westfield London store
Choice, the premium independent, has opened its new £1.5 million concept store at Westfield London shopping centre. -
Cloggs sets £20m sales target
Online branded footwear business Cloggs is hoping to quadruple sales to £20 million next year, in spite of the recession. -
Comeback for Boxfresh duo
The founding design team behind Boxfresh are to collaborate with the young fashion brand on a new collection. -
Debenhams directors could get bonus boost next year
Debenhams directors will have salaries frozen next year, but are set to gain from proposed changes to the executive bonus scheme. -
Debenhams’ Sale strategy praised
Concession operators have praised Debenhams for its five-day on three-day off discount strategy, after Christmas sales at the department store took off. -
Diesel opens largest store
Young fashion brand Diesel has opened its largest store to date in Milan, Italy and will open a similar concept shop in New York in the US this spring. -
Eastpak unveils clothing range
US bag specialist Eastpak is launching a young fashion collection. -
EBTM co-founder steps down
Quentin Griffiths, the co-founder of music fashion website EBTM, has stepped down from the board. -
Emu Australia opens European HQ in London
Antipodean sheepskin footwear brand Emu Australia is to open a European head office in London. -
Envy bought out of administration
Envy has been bought out of administration by new company Envy Retail. -
Footfall up at Bluewater
Footfall at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent was up by 6.2% last month, compared to November last year. -
Gorland enters administration
Fashion agency and distributor Gorland has gone into administration. -
Harold Crabtree, Halifax
This Victorian store has been given a 21st-century refit to celebrate its centenary next year -
Ideal Shopping Direct axes staff
Ideal Shopping Direct is to axe 70 jobs after sales fell back 17% for the six weeks to December 7. -
Indies told time is right to push for better leases
Independent retailers are being urged to push for better tenant leases as the amount of empty retail space in shopping centres and high streets is set to increase with the economic downturn. -
JJB revises loan repayments as sales dip
JJB Sports will not have to pay the full £20 million bridging loan with Icelandic bank Kaupthing on the due date December 14, after it struck a deal with its banks. -
John Lewis online sees record sales
Sales at John Lewis stores rose 20% last week, compared to the previous week, and online sales hit record levels. -
John Smedley
Despite the knitwear brand’s booming exports, it maintains a close relationship with staff and suppliers -
Kate Fearnley
A celebrity following has helped put the spotlight on womenswear designer Kate Fearnley’s label, as she explains to Ali Fulton -
Kids’ firms eye Ladybird label
The future of Woolworths’ kidswear brand Ladybird was unclear as Drapers went to press, after Woolworths’ administrator Deloitte failed to find a buyer for the high street chain. -
London Fashion Week line up announced
London Fashion Week has announced its provisional schedule for the the next event in February, which will include Twenty8Twelve, Sienna and Savannah Miller's brand, for the first time. -
Mainstream menswear indicator - December 13, 2008
Access Drapers’ unique source of sales information from mainstream menswear retailers, revealing the best-selling brands, the hottest products and the latest issues to affect menswear by clicking on the PDF below. -
Mainstream womenswear indicator, December 13, 2008
Access Drapers’ unique source of sales information from mainstream retailers, revealing the best-selling brands, the hottest products and the latest issues to affect womenswear by clicking on the PDF below. -
Manchester Fashion Network: How to break into the US
Manchester Fashion Network will host a panel discussion on how to break into the US market tomorrow evening. -
Marks & Spencer's director of communications and CSR to leave
Marks & Spencer's director of communications and CSR Flic Howard-Allen, is leaving the retailer. -
Michael Thomson
Drapers probe leading Independents to get their View From The Shop floor. -
Mulberry issues profit warning
Mulberry warned that its full-year results would fall short of last year and be below current market expectations, following a recent downturn in demand. -
New offices for Lee Cooper
Denim brand Lee Cooper will relocate to a new showroom and office space in Clerkenwell, east London, from January. -
No retail growth until 2014
Next year will prove to be one of the worst years on record for high street retailers, according to Verdict Research, with positive growth not set to return until 2014. -
Obesity levels add weight to plus-size sales
Sales of plus-size menswear are set to rise by 26% over the next five years following a huge increase since 2003, according to consumer research firm Mintel. -
Off the record, December 13, 2008
Drapers’ inside track on the parties and gossip from a week in the fashion business. -
OFT raps retailers over VAT cut behaviour
The Office of Fair Trading has written to leading fashion retailers warning them to be 'mindful of competition law' after they co-operated with each other last month to issue a statement on how they planned to pass on the 2.5% VAT cut to consumers. -
Online spending picks up pace for Christmas
Fashion etailers are posting robust sales in the run-up to Christmas, but many said that ‘Mega Monday,’ December 8, did not prove to be their biggest sales day of the year. -
Peacocks suppliers hit by cut in credit insurance
Peacocks suppliers have had their credit insurance cover slashed according to The Independent newspaper. -
Pieces of Eight pops up in Leeds for Xmas
A pop-up boutique selling a selection of young designers’ collections has opened in the Clarence Dock development in Leeds and will trade until Christmas Eve. -
Pop up shops are a high street treat
Two years ago, Philip Green put out a challenge to UK property companies: lower rents for new, creative, young businesses or high streets and shopping malls will become bland and boring. Backing an ever-upward economic trajectory, they did not heed his warning, with the consequence that there is now very little out there that is new. -
Primark records biggest one-day sales
Primark is understood to have bust its record for one-day one-store sales last Saturday at its London Oxford Street branch. -
Profits slump at Claire’s
Pre-tax profits at accessories chain Claire’s crashed to £190,000 after a fall in like-for-like store sales and currency fluctuations hit UK trading. -
Religion and Bolongaro Trevor scrap joint stores
Young fashion brands Religion and Bolongaro Trevor have ended their retail partnership just 14 months after launching a joint venture. -
Retail sales decline for second consecutive month
Like-for-like sales fell 2.6% and total sales fell 0.4% in November according to the British Retail Consortium. -
Retailer's prepare for biggest online shopping day
Retailers are bracing themselves for the UK's biggest Christmas shopping day online today, with shoppers expected to spend £320 million. -
Rock Couture tunes up for growth
Rock Couture, the three-store multi-branded outlet concept run by fashion entrepreneur Robert de Keyser, will expand to 12 stores next year. -
Sale frenzy alters the shopper psyche
I take my hat off to the indies polled for this week’s Indicator survey, who remain resolute that they won’t go into Sale before Christmas. -
Shhhhhhh!
Which boss has banned Facebook in the office, much to the disappointment of the business’s marketing department, who use it as part of their strategy. -
Shopper numbers dip despite weekend discounting
Shopper numbers dropped 1.7% over the weekend compared with last year, despite big price cuts across the high street. -
Shoppers spend £1m in a minute online
Shoppers spent more than £1 million in one minute during yesterday's record online shopping day, according to Retail Decisions, the payment processing firm. -
The secret to etail is all in the detail
For online retailers, it is imperative that the product detail page offers as much of the shop experience as possible. -
The weekend newspaper round up - December 6-7
The best of the fashion business related headlines from the weekend's papers... -
The window to a retailer’s soul
Visiting the Westfield London shopping centre in White City on the first weekend of opening may seem like a crazy idea, but I was not there to spend but to witness the competition between retailers and how they presented their brands. -
Trade lifts at John Lewis
Sales at department store group John Lewis were down 6.6% to £89.84 million over the week to December 6th, an improvement of 20% against the previous week. -
UKFE merges with BCIA to create super trade body
UK Fashion Exports will merge with the British Clothing Industry Association, to create a super trade body to represent the entire fashion trade sector. -
Urban Outfitters appoints European chief operating officer
Urban Outfitters has appointed a new chief operating officer for the the group's European business. -
Women’s refit at John Lewis
John Lewis will launch the blueprint for a more “fashion-centric” womenswear floor next autumn. -
Woolworths starts closing down Sale today
Woolworths is starting a closing down Sale today after administrators struggled to find a buyer for the business. -
Xmas Sale watch: Debenhams plans third pre-Xmas promotion
Debenhams will launch its third pre-Christmas Spectacular Sale tomorrow, just two days after its last promotion ended. -
Xmas Sale watch: House of Fraser slashes prices by 50%
House of Fraser has slashed selected prices by up to 50% in its pre-Christmas Sale which launched today. -
Xmas Sale watch: Marks & Spencer slashes 30% off clothing
Marks & Spencer will slash up to 30% off some clothing from Thursday as part of a range of promotions in the run up to Christmas. -
Zara owner Inditex posts strong sales
Inditex, which owns fashion chain Zara, defied the downturn with net sales up 11% to €7.35 billion (£6.41bn) in the first nine months of the year. -
Zara sets sights on UK expansion
Fast-fashion chain Zara plans to open more stores and increase profitability in the UK after sales rose almost 18% for the year to January 31 2008.
