Portugal’s Espace Cannelle, located at 24B Avenida Valbom in Cascais, announces the exclusive addition of the Australian brand AJE to its portfolio, thereby reaffirming “its role as a benchmark in contemporary fashion in Portugal”, it said in a statement.
AJE
With AJE, Espace Cannelle reinforces “its commitment to offering a considered curation of international fashion, bringing together brands that interpret global trends with authenticity, originality and a touch of irreverence.”
“AJE is recognised for celebrating exuberance and youth, offering pieces that combine boldness and sophistication, ideal for cocktails and for those seeking a vibrant, authentic style,” the note sent to FashionNetwork.com further explains, adding that the Australian label “particularly appeals to those who value a striking aesthetic, paired with elegance and comfort, while also offering highly competitive prices given the quality and design of its pieces.”
Making its Paris debut last October at the Palais de Tokyo, during Paris Fashion Week, AJE has also signalled a new phase in its international expansion, with immediate gains in markets including Australia, where it was founded, and the US, where it maintains a strong, established presence.
“Before Christmas, Espace Cannelle will have the honour of receiving AJE’s exclusive pre-collection, allowing its customers to be the first to discover the fresh, personality-driven designs that define this innovative brand.”
AJE promises to “win over fans of youthful, sophisticated fashion in Portugal,” the statement concludes.
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IKEA plans to source more products from factories in the United States, the Swedish furniture group’s top supply chain executive told Reuters, as President Donald Trump‘s tariffs drive up the cost of importing bookcases, mattresses and sofas.
IKEA logo is seen in this illustration taken, February 11, 2025 – REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
This marks a big shift for IKEA after the share of the company’s US-made products declined over the past decade. Inter IKEA, the brand franchiser, used to have a factory in Danville, Virginia, but shut it in 2019 and moved production back to Europe.
IKEA’s push to source products closer to where it sells them aims to support the retailer’s expansion in the US, its second-biggest market, and the wider region, where it has stores in Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, with plans to open in Costa Rica and Panama.
“We are designing our supply chain network to be much more resilient, robust, and responsive,” Susanne Waidzunas, Global Supply Manager at Inter IKEA said in an interview with Reuters, adding that the company’s stores in North and South America are very dependent on furniture being shipped in, with long lead times.
“The closer we can build, the faster we can react from a supply perspective, both when it goes up in demand but also when it goes down,” said Waidzunas. The plan to produce closer to US consumers predates this year’s tariff hikes and is part of a global initiative.
But the timing is now beneficial: IKEA prides itself on low prices but was forced to increase them on some products in the US to offset the tariff impact. The retailer’s sales have declined for two years running as it lowered prices to attract inflation-weary shoppers.
SBA Home, a Lithuanian supplier to IKEA, is ramping up its first US factory in Mocksville, North Carolina, a $70 million investment supported in part by Inter IKEA. The factory will make products for IKEA like top-selling KALLAX shelves.
Jurgita Radzevice, CEO of SBA Home, said manufacturing capacity at the largely automated factory, which is expected to produce 2 million pieces of furniture a year, is steadily increasing.
IKEA depends more on imports in the US than elsewhere. Just 15% of IKEA products sold in US stores are made in-country, down from 19% in 2014. In Europe, 70% of the products IKEA sells are made in the region, while the equivalent figure for Asia is 80%. Its top sourcing countries are China, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Poland.
Producing in the US is more expensive, Waidzunas said, but shipping products across the world is also more costly and more unpredictable now than before the COVID-19 pandemic. IKEA plans to buy more from existing US suppliers, which include Ohio-based Sauder Woodworking, and look for new suppliers particularly of bulky items, aiming, for example, to source most of its mattresses in the US.
London property giant Shaftesbury Capital has announced that “following the completion of a number of important initiatives Andrew Price, executive director will be stepping down from his role at the end of this year to pursue other opportunities”.
Andrew Price – Shaftesbury Capital
Price joined the business in 2001 and has “undertaken a number of significant investment, asset management and leadership roles”.
Following the Shaftesbury and Capco merger and the sale of the Fitzrovia portfolio he led the operations team “to achieve efficiencies across the portfolio and drive the enhancement of sustainability initiatives”.
CEO Ian Hawksworth said that he “made a significant contribution to the company over many years. He leaves with our thanks and best wishes for the future”.
There was no hint of where he’s off to next.
The news comes less than a month after the company said Michelle McGrath, also an executive director, would be stepping down from her role to pursue other opportunities. She too will leave at the end of the year.
Shaftesbury Capital was created in 2022 as two of London’s major landlords merged to form an entity that now controls huge swathes of Soho, the West End and Covent Garden. Its properties have been among the most buoyant in recent periods and in an update earlier this month it talked of being “busy and vibrant through this important trading period, with high occupancy, footfall and sales volumes”.
November’s retail sales, in discretionary categories proved unexciting — that’s the conclusion to be drawn from the latest monthly High Street Sales Tracker (HSST) from accountancy and business advisory firm BDO.
Photo: Pexels/Public domain
It said that total like-for-like retail sales in-store and online grew by 3.4% in November, while stores recorded sales growth of just 1.3% compared to November 2024.
But overall, discretionary spend growth remained below inflation meaning sales volumes were down.
And coming after those sales fell 5.8% a year ago, it’s clear that they haven’t yet even recovered that lost ground.
In-store specifically, sales grew by just 1.3%, as mentioned, compared to a very poor base of a 5.5% fall in November 2024. This is also well below the rate of inflation which means that sales volumes are significantly down.
And sales growth this time was primarily driven by online, which increased by 9.9% compared to a negative 7.8% for the same month last year, reflecting the continued struggles of physical stores to attract consumer spending, but also online spending barely getting back to where it was in November 2023.
Worse for those who invested a lot in Black Friday promotions is that while the event “failed to drive any meaningful sales growth for retailers or get shoppers spending in stores in November”, Black Friday week itself saw the lowest sales growth during the month, at just 0.38% above the same week last year.
The intense discounting during the month will, of course have put further pressure on margins.
BDO’s Sophie Michael said: “While retailers may have thought that consumers were holding back until the budget, which was unhelpfully late in the Golden Quarter, the expected surge in Black Friday discretionary spending just hasn’t materialised.
“Retailers are under intense pressure to compete for every pound spent on non-essentials, and persistent food inflation is making this battle all the tougher, leaving consumers with less money to spend in discretionary categories. Ultimately this Christmas may come down to a battle between feasting and gifting – will consumers prioritise filling their festive tables or buying gifts and filling stockings?”
She also thinks it will be “tempting for retailers to continue the heavy discounting we saw in November, to boost sales and clear stock before new product lines come through in January, but we know that this only erodes margins. Margins and profits are already under huge pressure, and we’ve seen in November that discounts are not enough to get shoppers into stores”.