Starbucks Hong Kong has opened a new cafe in the heart of Hong Kong’s Sheung Shui.
The cafe is unique in that it features an indoor brewing and restaurant area together with a large, open air verandah seating space.
The new cafe opened this month in Landmark North, a 230,000 sqft shopping centre connected to the Sheung Shui MTR station close to the Shenzhen border crossing.
The new cafe will be open from 8am to 10pm daily.
Starbucks Hong Kong and Macau is run by master franchisee Maxim’s Group.
Croma, consumer durables and electronics chain of the Tata Group, is looking to open a dozen more stores in India this financial year.
In April, the first month of 2015-16, it launched three stores. Two more are being readied for launch in a month or so. “We have budgeted for around 10 new stores in FY16 but might exceed that, depending on the quality of location and store layout, if we get the right rental. We continue to focus sharply on calibrated growth in our chosen markets,” said a spokesperson.
Croma’s first chief executive and managing director, Ajit Joshi, quit the chain recently after eight years at the helm. Its chief financial officer, Avijit Mitra, is interim CE. Croma runs about 100 stores. It is also looking to launch new products in home appliances, the spokesperson said.
Pandora Jewellery is now on sale to guests of two of ‘the most magical places on earth’.
The resurgent European jeweller, has partnered with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts to open dedicated Pandora Jewelry boutiques within two Disney merchandise locations: Uptown Jewelers in Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and La Mascarade d’Orleans in Disneyland park in California. Both locations carry Pandora’s newly released spring 2015 Disney jewellery collection and the Disney Parks collection, as well as the full assortment of Pandora jewellery.
The redesigned Uptown Jewellers is reminiscent of a Victorian era collectibles shop, echoing the nostalgic style of Main Street USA, the first themed land within Magic Kingdom Park. With classic decor and ornamental touches, Uptown Jewellers “reflects the prosperity and optimism of early 20th century America”.
The newly renovated La Mascarade d’Orleans, located in the heart of New Orleans Square in Disneyland park, brings the festivities of the French Quarter to life. Fantastical masks, rich fabrics and vibrant colors complement fixtures displaying Pandora rings, necklaces, earrings, charms and bracelets.
Pandora’s new Disney jewellery collections of hand finished silver and 14K gold charms feature inspirations from some of Disney’s most beloved characters, and include more than 101 different styles for Disney Parks guests to choose from.
The Disney jewellery collection is sold at Pandora concept stores throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central America and the Caribbean, as well as through select Disney merchandise locations, including DisneyStore.com.
US fast food company Burger King has posted its best quarterly sales increase in nearly a decade.
The company says the sales boost is the result of a promotional ‘two for $5’ campaign, the introduction of the new spicy BLT Whopper and a boost in breakfast sales – no single “silver bullet”.
Burger King’s same store sales rose 6.9 per cent in the US and Canada, according to parent Restaurant Brands International, but it declined to say if it was the result of increased customer traffic or a high per customer spend. Given the low cost promotional offer, it’s likely to have come at the cost of margins.
Burger King’s performance is all the more significant due to its coincidence with a 2.6 per cent fall in sales by its larger rival McDonald’s.
Global same store sales rose 4.6 per cent at Burger King.
UK department store retailer House of Fraser has confirmed it will open three stores in China.
The first will be in Nanjing, the home of House of Fraser’s Chinese owners Sanpower after its £489 million buyout of 89 per cent last September.
The second store will be in Chongqing and the third in Xuzhou, which is scheduled to open in 2017.
A second franchised store is also planned for Abu Dhabi.
House of Fraser revealed record annual profits this week, driven by a 32 per cent increase in online sales and like for like sales up 5.8 per cent to £1.3billion. It reported a record gross profit of £460.2 million. Own brand sales – for Linea and Army & Navy – rose 10 per cent.
House of Fraser chief Nigel Oddy said the company is excited about its future prospects as it embarks on its next phase of growth internationally.
Oddy joined House of Fraser in february after a career with Marks & Spencer which included a term as head of its retail operations in Hong Kong and involvement in buying, giving him extensive knowledge of greater China.
Krispy Kreme has signed a development agreement with a master franchisor in Cambodia.
The Express Food Group (EFG) will open 10 Krispy Kreme Cambodia shops over the next five years.
“This agreement will further strengthen Krispy Kreme’s brand position throughout Asia and will enable us to bring our mission of touching and enhancing lives through the joy that is Krispy Kreme to the people of Cambodia,” said Dan Beem, Krispy Kreme’s senior VP and president – international.
“One of the keys to the success of Krispy Kreme in any country is working with top-quality franchisees, and EFG is an experienced company dedicated to delivering an exceptional customer experience.”
A member of Bangkok-based RMA Group, EFG was founded in 2004 and currently employs more than 1200 Cambodians at its 42 restaurants from a variety of QSR and casual restaurants, including Swensen’s, Costa Coffee, The Pizza Company and Dairy Queen. The company also operates 15 food and beverage outlets in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap international airports.
“We are very proud and excited to introduce Krispy Kreme to the Cambodian market,” said Jean-Boris Roux, regional director of RMA Group’s food division.
“EFG has always been determined to bring strong leading brands to this country, and we are confident that Cambodians will quickly embrace Krispy Kreme’s signature sweet treats and the entire Krispy Kreme experience.”
North Carolina-based Krispy Kreme now boasts more than 1000 retail shops in 24 countries.
apan’s Rakuten and Gentosha Inc. recently launched GINGER mirror, a free online fashion magazine for women linked with e-commerce.
GINGER mirror is a free online fashion magazine optimized for smartphones aimed at busy women in their late 20s and 30s who wish to enjoy the latest fashions despite having limited time and budget. The magazine showcases reasonably priced fashion items that can be bought on Rakuten Ichiba.
Rakuten said the ratio of purchases made on mobile devices on Rakuten Ichiba has been increasing in recent years, especially in the fashion genre. By presenting Rakuten Ichiba fashion items to readers through a smartphone-optimized online magazine and providing a simple system for users to purchase the featured items, the number of purchases of fashion products made through mobile devices is expected to increase.
The first edition of GINGER mirror, released on April 15, features model and actress Nanao on the cover and introduces around 400 hot fashion items and accessories across 100 pages under the theme “Spring Fashion Cost Performance Buying Guide.”
Rakuten will continue to strive to create new added value for the wide array of reasonably-priced products offered on Rakuten Ichiba, harnessing the know-how of Gentosha in producing women’s magazines to bring even more gloss and appeal to its products.
Years 2013 and 2014 saw an unprecedented level of cyber assault on retailers. Several major breaches hit the headlines and retailers reported tens of millions of customer data and credit card records exposed. Despite widespread attention to payment card industry (PCI) compliance, cyber criminals have clearly taken retailers by surprise.
Due to the frequency and impact of recent cyber attacks targeting retailers, Deloitte undertook efforts to gather information and facilitate practical dialogue on the issue of cyber risk. The report, Cyber risk in retail: protecting the retail business to secure tomorrow’s growth, summarizes key issues facing retailers:
It also outlines actions that retail organizations can take near term to mitigate cybersecurity risk, and concludes with a set of issues that call for future research, dialogue, and collaboration.
To download the report, click here.
Two years after the deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza complex, employees in Bangladesh’s garment sector still face exploitative and dangerous working conditions despite government labour reforms, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.
While the government and global brands have made progress in improving safety conditions for Bangladesh’s millions of garment workers, many still contend with abuse at work, delayed wages, and threats when they try to form a union, an HRW report said.
“Clearly, it is not enough to focus on safety alone,” Phil Robertson, the rights group’s Asia deputy director, said in a statement.
“Recent tragedies at Bangladeshi factories demonstrate that dangerous working conditions are linked to the failure to respect workers’ rights, including their right to form unions which can help them to collectively bargain for improved safety.”
The merger of the world’s two biggest online fashion stores, Net-a-Porter, or NAP, and Yoox, sends a warning to luxury brands to embrace the Internet with more vim after years of resistance.
Top brands such as Prada and LVMH’s Christian Dior still baulk at the idea of selling clothing online as well as through their plush boutiques.
“Considering the level of sophistication and image of our ready-to-wear, we feel the shopping experience has to remain immaculate and in-store,” says Stefano Cantino, head of marketing and commercial development at Prada.
“You need the physical environment to try the product on and you need an exclusive service which you can only get in a boutique.”
But as more people choose to buy through a website instead of going to Rue St Honore or New Bond Street, that position looks increasingly untenable. Brands whose goods are not available online risk losing customers to rivals.
Luxury executives understand the Internet will be vital for future sales, particularly to so-called Millennials — web-savvy customers born between 1980 and 2000.
Yet top brands such as LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Prada and Chanel have been slow to invest in e-commerce as other retail sectors have done in the last decade.
Some have focused as much on the shopping experience as on the products themselves, spending heavily on worldwide expansion and revamping stores with help from famous designers.
“Many luxury brands have not figured out yet how to be innovative and creative online,” said Anant Sharma of consultancy Matter of Form. “It looks like they are scared to try things out.”
Sharma said many brands’ websites mimicked the appearance of Net-a-Porter’s black-and-white portal. “If they had the same approach to physical retail, we’d all be shopping in whitewashed rooms with clothes lined up against the four walls.”
Immediately after the Yoox/NAP deal was unveiled last month, Chanel said it would start retailing online next year. This month, it is selling a new jewelry line exclusively through NAP for just three weeks.
“The merger between Yoox and NAP sends the message that you need to be online or you may be out of the game,” Euromonitor luxury goods analyst Fflur Roberts said.
Euromonitor expects 40 percent of all luxury goods sales will be made via the Internet in less than five years.
Online annual luxury goods sales have been growing at 15-25 percent while the industry’s average growth rate has slumped to 5 percent this year from above 10 percent four years ago as brands have completed big global roll-outs.
Analysts estimate that 5-6 percent of luxury goods are purchased online, although that jumps to around 8 percent for leather goods such as shoes and handbags.
Designer websites vary in usability but few offer customers as much help as sites like NAP, which shows clothes on models, gives details of fit and sizing and carries styling tips.
Prada’s e-commerce site carries no ready-to-wear, sticking to bags, shoes and other accessories.
Kering’s Saint Laurent and Gucci have slicker sites, offering a wide range of clothing and proposing complete looks. Saint Laurent also features designer Hedi Slimane’s black and white photographs of musicians such as Marilyn Manson and Marianne Faithful.
But Hermes’s iconic 8,000 euro Birkin or Kelly bags still cannot be bought online — and may take more than year to arrive after being ordered from a store.
Department stores push
While many big luxury brands are still figuring out an Internet strategy, high-end department stores already sell their products online.
The Neiman Marcus chain, which includes New York’s Bergdorf Goodman, does 24 percent of its business online, up from 15 percent five or six years ago. Last year, it acquired German online fashion retailer My Theresa, aiming to better serve customers outside the United States.
London’s Harrods, whose website gets 3 million visitors a month and sells brands such as Valentino and LVMH’s Givenchy, is also stepping up online investment.
“Our customer demands an omni-channel shopping experience, and to remain at the forefront of luxury retail we need to respond to this,” Harrods managing director Michael Ward said.
Chief Executive Bernard Arnault said at LVMH’s annual general meeting last week that “more and more products would be sold online” and the group was “currently adapting to this situation”.
LVMH labels such as Fendi, Kenzo and Emilio Pucci already offer many products online — Fendi sells 750 euro baguette bags and 6,180 euro blue feathered dresses — but Louis Vuitton sells only accessories, pens, watches and jewelry.
Richemont’s Cartier brand has sold jewelry online in the United States since 2010 and its online store now ranks third behind its two main flagships in terms of sales.
Privately owned Patek Philippe, does not sell any of its 10,000 euro plus timepieces on the Internet, however, and told Reuters last month it has no intention of doing so.
McDonald’s India has opened three McCafés in Bengaluru.
Westlife Development, owner of the Master Franchisee of McDonald’s in India, Hardcastle Restaurants, said the McCafes were the first in South India.
Smita Jatia, MD of Hardcastle Restaurants, said Bengaluru has great significance as a coffee hub and there is tremendous potential for growth there.
“With the launch of McCafe, we will strengthen our beverage strategy and build our restaurants as a one stop destination for all customers to enjoy across all ‘day parts’.
*Smita Jatia, Managing director, Hardcastle restaurants Pvt Ltd at the Launch of McCafe in Bengaluru
The store-in-store format enables a quick roll-out of a McCafé with an investment of Rs 30-35 lakhs per outlet across key trading areas in metro cities of West & South India to make it easily accessible to our consumers.”
Jatia said within the last 18 months McDonald’s India has expanded the McCafé network across 41 restaurants in six cities – Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune and now Bengaluru.
“Today, we are well on track as per the stated goal to launch 75-150 McCafé over the next three to five years, a clear testament to the fact that our coffees, frappes and muffins have been very well accepted by customers.”
The expansion of the McCafé brand and its product offering is part of the company’s goal to elevate its coffee portfolio and to become India’s favourite destination for good food and quality beverages.
“We believe that we will be able to delight customers in Bengaluru too with our freshly brewed aromatic coffees,” said Jatia.
McCafé uses 100 per cent Arabica coffee beans brewed by professionally trained baristas and sourced from sustainable farms in Chikmangalur, India.
McDonald’s India first opened a McCafe in October 2013. Hardcastle Restaurants, which operates McDonald’s in west and south India, recognised an unmet need, for existing and new customers, in the rapidly growing Indian specialty coffee segment.
McCafé was created and launched in Melbourne, Australia in 1993, and has since spread worldwide, with the first in the US opening in Chicago, Illinois, in May 2001. Today, McCafés can be found in Costa Rica, Japan, Paraguay, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, Canada, Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UK, amongst other countries.
Shoppers in Thailand could later this year earn extra discounts if they shop in Thai national costume.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand is planning a promotion to reward both Thais and tourists who dress Thai with discounts of up to 80 per cent.
It believes the novel promotion will not only encourage shopping and raise awareness of the mid-year Amazing Thailand Grand Sale , but help broaden recognition and appreciation of traditional Thai clothing.
TAT says the plan is to boost awareness of “Thainess”.
Sugree Sithivanich, TAT’s deputy governor for marketing communications, said the authority still expects tourism growth during the traditional mid-year low season .
It plans to work with large shopping malls across the nation in a campaign to create awareness of this year’s tourism marketing theme: “2015 Discover Thainess”.
He said the campaign would be implemented during the Amazing Thailand Grand Sale which runs from June to September.
Singapore supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice says customers saved more than 9 million plastic bags last year as the company pursued its green strategy.
FairPrice said it gave out more than S$450,000 in rebates under its FairPrice Green Rewards Scheme last year.
Koh Kok Sin, chairperson of the FairPrice green committee, said securing a sustainable future for Earth is the responsibility of everyone in this generation.
“We continue to upgrade and make our stores as eco-friendly as possible, find ways to raise environmental consciousness among shoppers, and encourage them to Think Green and Shop Green. We are encouraged that our customers recognise the call to care for the Earth, and share our commitment to save plastic bags and take on other sustainable initiatives. We will continue to work together with our stakeholders to build a green and eco-friendly Singapore.”
FairPrice first launched the FairPrice Green Rewards Scheme in 2007 to urge shoppers to use fewer plastic bags. Since then, FairPrice has given out more than $2.3 million in rebates which has resulted in an estimated 46.5 million plastic bags saved. In the same period, FairPrice has seen an increase in plastic bags saved at its stores by about 10 per cent year-on-year; and recorded the highest number of plastic bags saved last year.
FairPrice also supported Earth Hour on March 28 by switching off all non-essential lights at its stores, offices and warehouses, in addition to donating $12,500 to WWF. This is the seventh year that FairPrice has supported WWF’s global Earth Hour initiative.
To conserve energy and to reduce its carbon footprint, FairPrice continues to install eco-friendly features in its stores, as well as switching to energy-saving equipment and lighting in the existing stores. Currently, 60 stores have already been installed with these green features. Several FairPrice stores have been awarded with BCA Green Mark awards, including FairPrice Finest@ZhongShan Park and FairPrice Xtra@Kallang Wave Mall that have both been awarded with the BCA Green Mark (Platinum) awards. FairPrice’s headquarters located in Benoi, FairPrice Hub, also received the BCA Green Mark (Platinum) award for incorporating extensive green architecture features which promote sustainability and conservation of resources.
Retailers globally are investing “enormous” amounts of money in omnichannel business modes, according to a study from JDA.
But alarmingly, just 16 per cent of 400 surveyed said they can fulfil omnichannel demand profitably.
This finding, and others are highlighted in The Omni-Channel Fulfillment Imperative a new report prepared for JDA Software Group by PwC. The study is based on a global survey of more than 400 retail and consumer goods CEOs from around the world, conducted in late 2014.
What is eroding retailers’ margins as they sell and deliver products across multiple channels? It’s simple: the high fulfilment cost. A full 67 per cent of respondents reported that these costs are growing as they increase their focus on selling across channels. Survey respondents reported their highest costs associated with omni-channel selling as:
The CEOs in the JDA study recognise that they need to continue investing in business improvements to enhance their omni-channel performance. However, reducing the associated logistics costs is not their primary focus.
The respondents were interviewed in China, North and Central America, the UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia
When asked to rank their top initiatives for improving business operations, CEOs’ number-one choice (57 per cent) was spending capital on creating new customer experiences. Similarly, when asked to rank strategic growth enablers for the year, reducing/reformatting physical store footprints to focus on expanding the ecommerce business was the top choice at 53 per cent.
“Every time retailers receive an online order, they have a number of options to fulfill that demand,” said Kevin Iaquinto, chief marketing officer at JDA.
“They can pull the product from a local store, send it from a centralised warehouse or ship it directly from the supplier. JDA’s new study demonstrates that most retailers lack the insight to make these decisions in a profitable manner — and are not sufficiently focused on this critical capability gap,” said Iaquinto.
“They need intelligent logistics and fulfillment solutions that can reveal the hidden costs, and the customer service trade-offs, associated with every delivery option. In addition, to truly win in the omni-channel marketplace, retailers need the upfront demand forecasting tools to make sure products arealready distributed across all locations in a manner that supports profitable delivery.”
While they might not be focused on actions today to create profitable fulfillment and delivery schemes, the JDA study leaves no doubt that CEOs are aware of the importance of profitable omni-channel fulfillment to their future survival. Omni-channel fulfillment is either a high or a top priority for 71 per cent of respondents.
And these CEOs are planning to invest an average of 29 per cent of their total capital expenditures for 2015 on improving their omni-channel fulfillment performance.
The fulfillment capability most cited as needing attention was transportation and logistics, named by 88 per cent of CEOs as a priority for the future. The second capability CEOs will focus on is improving inventory availability to fill orders, cited by 85 per cent.
“Having products available, then finding the most profitable way to deliver them —are critical activities that lie at the heart of supply chain excellence,” noted Iaquinto.
“The CEOs in the JDA survey clearly understand the challenges they have ahead of them with regard to fulfillment, and they know they will have to innovate if they are to be profitable while meeting customer expectations across channels.
“The good news is that advanced technology can help retailers and consumer goods manufacturers master omni-channel fulfillment. However, until companies fully leverage these solutions, they will fail to realize positive financial returns on their omni-channel investments.”
Tesco has reported a £1.4 billion preliminary full year group trading profit on increased sales.
But it lost a massive £7 billion in writedowns and one-off charges to create a record annual loss of about £6 billion.
In Asia – where Tesco operates hypermarkets in China, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea – group profit fell 18.4 per cent in the year to March 31, to £565 million. But that was a far better performance than in the UK, where profit slumped 78.8 per cent to just £467 million, and in Europe, down 31.9 per cent to £164 million.
In something of an understatement, CEO Dave Lewis described the year as “very difficult”.
“The results we have published today reflect a deterioration in the market and, more significantly, an erosion of our competitiveness over recent years. We have faced into this reality, sought to draw a line under the past and begun to rebuild, and already we are beginning to see early encouraging signs from what we’ve done so far.”
Indeed, if one could overlook such massive writedowns, the trading news was positive.
UK like-for-like sales were up for first time in over four years, driven by better availability, service and pricing; like-for-like sales performance improved to one per cent in the fourth quarter which, by grocery retailing standards, is significant.
Lewis highlighted “tough trading conditions overseas”, especially in Korea.
But he said the transformation program outlined in January was progressing well, the portfolio review ongoing.
“Over the last six months we have put customers back at the centre of everything we do. By focusing on the fundamentals of availability, service and targeted price reductions, we have seen a steady increase in footfall, transactions and, most significantly, volumes. More customers are buying more things at Tesco,” he said.
“We are making deep changes to the way we organise and run our business, with a simpler, more agile office team, more colleagues serving customers and a new approach to the way we work with suppliers. I do not underestimate how difficult some of these changes have been for the team and I thank everyone for their professionalism and contribution at this time of great change.”
Lewis said the market remained challenging and the company was not expecting any let up in the months ahead.
“When you add to this the fundamental changes we are making to our business and our offer, it is likely to lead to an increased level of volatility in short-term performance. Our clear priority – and the one that will deliver sustainable value for our shareholders – is to improve consistently for customers. The changes we have made and will continue to make put us in a stronger position to do this.”