Waitrose and Marks & Spencer score well in customer loyalty league

A fresh wave of retail closures is likely to hit the UK shortly, claims vacant property expert Safe Estates.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) saw like-for-like sales drop by 1.4% in the UK during the three months to 27 June, the retailer said today.

Retailer The Mills Group has completed the acquisition of five stores from supermarket chain Sainsbury's in a deal it hopes will increase annual turnover by 10%.

Morrisons, Asda and Aldi were the big supermarket winners in the Quality Drink Awards (QDA), the annual alcoholic drinks competition run by Independent Retail News and Talking Retail.com.

The Co-operative Group is next month (July) returning with a fresh burst of TV activity featuring its "Good for Everyone" commercial, which is the first to use Bob Dylan's iconic song "Blowin' in the Wind".

The grocery market is continuing to "ride out the recession", with the latest TNS Worldpanel grocery market share figures, published today for the 12 weeks ending June 14, showing the sector growing strongly at 6.5%.

Warmer weather and slowing food inflation have boosted volume and value sales in the UK grocery market, with Waitrose turning in an "impressive performance" over the last month, according to figures out today by market research company Nielsen.

A goat's cheese from Dorset has won the final of Tesco's annual Cheese Challenge to find the next generation of Britain's small cheese producers.

A ban on tobacco displays in shops could cause more than three-quarters of Britain's corner shops to close, claims a new survey.