Week in Review

September 18, 2022

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Week in Review | Sept. 18, 2022

This holiday season consumers will be searching for deals as well as making trade-offs to get more mileage out of their gift-giving budgets, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse.

FINANCE

Inditex (Spain) reported H1 sales rose 24.5% to €14.8 billion ($14.82 billion) year-on-year. Net income increased 41% to €1.8 billion ($1.8 billion)

H&M (Sweden) reported sales grew 3% year-on-year to $5,505 million for the quarter ended Aug 31, 2022.

The company said that the quarter got off to a slow start but that its new autumn collection was selling well.

Church’s (UK) has revealed that its sales slumped to a 40-year low of just £6.1 million ($6.8 million) last year, down 57% year-on-year. Pre-tax losses for the luxury shoe brand widened by 53% to £24.7 million ($27.5 million).

Frasers Group (UK) has emerged as a potential buyer of Gieves & Hawkes, the 250-year-old Savile Row tailor.

Tuesday Morning (USA) is being acquired by a group that includes Retail Ecommerce Ventures and investors including Ayon Capital and Existing Management, which intend to invest $35 million into the off-price retailer.

This will strengthen the company’s balance sheet and see it begin an omnichannel strategy that will include an e-commerce.

Everlane (USA) has raised $90 million in debt financing to be used to “refinance existing indebtedness and provide incremental liquidity for growth initiatives as well as to pay transaction-related fees and expenses.”

Rent the Runway (USA) plans to cut 24% of its corporate workforce by the end of this year. The company estimates this will save $25 million to $27 million in annual operating costs next year.

Q2 revenue rose 64% year over year to $76.5 million.
Active subscribers rose 27% to 124,131 (slower growth than in Q1).
Net loss narrowed to $33.9 million, from $42.4 million a year ago.

CONSUMER MARKETS

Gen Z Consumers Are Not Where You’d Expect to Find Them

It’s easy to assume Gen Z’s shopping preferences would fall in line with younger Millennials’, however the more data we gather on Gen Zs, the more we find they are not following the path that those even a few years ahead of them have made.

Gen Z in particular, is putting ‘product first’, which is creating a huge opportunity for physical stores.

While many people argue that since Gen Z grew up with online shopping – and with so much of their lives digitized – that this would be their preferred channel.

However research shows just the opposite is true. READ MORE

PODCAST

A Faster, More Successful Way to Recruit Top Talent

Whether you are running a huge organisation or a small business, one of the challenges everyone faces is finding the right talent.

But is there an efficient and effective way to vet a large pool of candidates – and determine with any level of accuracy who might be the best person for a specific job?

In this podcast Alex Svinov, CEO & Co-Founder of Insquad, talks about a method his company has developed that shortens the recruitment process and saves time screening hundreds of CVs or resumes.

What You’ll Learn:

A faster, more efficient way to find the right talent.
Why a candidate’s mindset is as important as their skill set.
How remote working can enable companies to tap into rich talent pools around the world.

🎧 Listen to the podcast

RETAIL

Windsor Fashions (USA) has opened a 4,000 sq. ft store in New York’s SoHo district, its first store in the city – and part of its plan to open 32 new stores this year.

The company focuses on occasion dresses and offers more than 200 new styles in-store and online every week.

U.S. retailers opened 4,432 stores so far this year and closed just 1,954, according to a new report from property agents JLL.

Retail leasing is now at 2017 levels, with the biggest expansion coming from discounters.
Retail space will continue to be limited in the months ahead, predicted JLL.

MARKETS

The British pound has dropped 0.6% against the dollar to $1.136, its weakest point since 1985, after data showed that retail sales volumes had suffered their biggest fall in more than a year.

U.S. core retail sales in August inched up 0.1% from July and rose 8% year-over-over, according to the National Retail Federation (excluding automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants). In July, sales were up 0.5% month over month and up 7.2% year over year.

US apparel sales rose 17% year-on-year in August, according to Mastercard Spending Pulse. Department stores were up 6% during the month.