Lingerie Firm Buys Undies Maker
Wacoal Holdings Corp. said it is buying Eveden for about £150mn, Fuji television’s Zaikei news website reported on 3 April. The lingerie firm said it will use cash reserves and loans to buy all the shares of the Kettering, Northamptonshire-based specialist in designing and manufacturing high quality, fashionable lingerie and swimwear for large sizes.
Since 2006, Eveden has consistently outperformed the market, consolidated its UK position and expanded overseas.
Goodwill Envoys Appointed for “Great Campaign”
A voice actor/singer and an actress have been appointed the latest goodwill ambassadors for Britain’s “Great Campaign”, Daily Sports reported on 11 April.
Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt awarded certificates to Masachika Ichimura, 63, and An Suzuki, 24, at the British Embassy Tokyo.
They will promote major events, including Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee and the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. Next January, Ichimura will perform his stage play Anjin: English Samurai in the UK.
Change in Global Food Sales
The UK grocery market will be the eighth largest in the world by 2015, while India will displace Japan as the world’s third largest in terms of value, Talking Retail reported on 4 April.
In the same year, according to research, the BRIC nations—Brazil, Russia, India and China—will be among the top-five grocery markets. China has already overtaken the US as the world’s biggest food and grocery retail market, and its grocery sales are expected to triple in value to nearly £1trn by 2015.
Seeds and Tree Donated
Japan donated seeds from six plants that grow in the earthquake and tsunami area to Kew Gardens, and planted a memorial tree there, media reported in April.
A zelkova, the official tree of Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, was planted in Kew’s Japanese garden. Pupils of schools in both countries who had exchanged letters after the quake attended the event along with the leader of the British international relief team.
Star Plans Top-Tier Move
Shinji Kagawa is planning to move from Borussia Dortmund to either Premier League leaders Manchester United or FA Cup finalists Chelsea, it was reported on 3 April by the English-language edition of Bild, Germany’s biggest circulation tabloid. The 23-year-old has scored 12 goals in 25 league games this season.
Wake-up Call over Data “Gold Mine”
Symbol group retailers—which supply independent grocers and small supermarkets and produce stores—need to get together to collect and analyse information about their customers as did convenience store groups in Japan 10 years ago, when they were being “beaten up” by supermarkets, Talking Retail reported on 9 April.
A leading consultant to the sector was quoted as saying that convenience stores had collaborated on a common system for contactless payments, made use of the data they collected and have since moved from a position of weakness to one of strength.
Collecting, understanding and making use of customer data was “the elephant in the room” within the UK convenience sector, which is “sitting on a gold mine” of customer data, but not making proper use of it. There is a wealth of information available to retailers from their till-roll data, including what type of shopping mission customers are on, how sensitive they are to price and how health-conscious they are, the consultant said. “Every till receipt contains the DNA of the shopper”.
