Things haven’t always been going Frasers Group’s way in recent periods after it was frustrated in its attempts to take over Mulberry and also in its aim to get its own majority owner Mike Ashley onto Boohoo Group’s board and to oust Boohoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani.
It gave up on the former aim but is still smarting about being foiled in its Boohoo moves and as the firm’s biggest single shareholder it has now released an open letter saying its concerns about governance at Boohoo continue.
The company said that it “respects the views of the independent shareholders” who voted against its resolutions in relation to Ashley and Kamani.
But it added that it would like to make Boohoo shareholders aware of “certain troubling matters in relation to the remuneration that Frasers understands Mr Umar Kamani, the son of Boohoo’s founder and executive vice-chair, Mahmud Kamani, is receiving for providing ‘consultancy services’ to a subsidiary of Boohoo”.
It’s talking about the PrettyLittleThing brand to which Umar Kamani returned as CEO last autumn. He’d left the brand he founded a year earlier.
Frasers said it “remains deeply troubled by Boohoo’s governance practices and lack of transparency of material arrangements”.
Given the company’s stock exchange listing obligations and Kamani’s importance to PLT, which is a key label for Boohoo, Frasers said it’s surprised that “no details of Umar Kamani’s remuneration at PLT have been provided to Boohoo shareholders. Frasers has recently been made aware of reports alleging that Umar Kamani is receiving payments exceeding £2 million annually from PLT to a bank account in Dubai”.
It added: “Despite repeated requests from Frasers that the details of this consultancy arrangement be disclosed and notwithstanding the significance of the alleged amounts and apparent conflict of interest concerns, including in relation to Umar Kamani’s position as a related party to Boohoo and PLT, no details have been provided to Boohoo shareholders. Frasers is aware that other shareholders of Boohoo have previously asked… questions relating to Umar Kamani’s position at PLT and no responses from Boohoo have been forthcoming”.
German retail sales rose in 2024, but growth should be more modest this year due to the high level of uncertainty, according to retail association HDE.
Last year, retail sales rose 1.1% compared to the previous year in inflation-adjusted terms, official data showed on Friday. The HDE forecasts 0.5% growth in real terms this year.
“Consumption and the retail sector in Germany will not really gain momentum in 2025 either,” said HDE managing director Stefan Genth. “There is simply too much uncertainty,” he said. “Wars, high energy costs and overall economic stagnation are a toxic cocktail for consumption.”
In nominal terms, retail sales rose by 2.5% in 2024 and are expected to grow by 2.0% in 2025, according to HDE’s forecast.
The latest HDE survey with 700 retailers shows that 22% of respondents expect sales to increase this year, while almost half of them expect results to be below the previous year’s level.
In December, retail sales fell by 1.6% compared with the previous month, official data showed. Analysts had predicted a 0.2% increase.
Many big names in UK retail had a good Christmas season — despite the sector being generally sluggish — but it seems John Lewis Partnership (JLP) may not have been one of them.
The retailer — which operates its eponymous department stores and webstore, plus Waitrose supermarkets — has missed its profit target after a disappointing festive season.
It hasn’t shared any info officially but internal documents seen by The Telegraph suggest bad news to come when it does release its results.
Those internal documents have only been shared with staff so far with the company saying that sales have fallen short of expectations and it’s unlikely to achieve its hoped-for £131 million full-year profit.
The company is said to have blamed “lower consumer confidence and weaker than expected market confidence” for the sales miss in the month to 21 December, although also the fact that key trading days fell outside the period.
Sales targets were missed at both of the firm’s chains, although the newspaper said it still claimed it outperformed rivals and staff should be “proud of our performance”.
It will be interesting therefore to see exactly what its figures were as a number of rivals have actually reported a good Christmas. If its stores have beaten other supermarkets and chains like M&S, perhaps its targets were too ambitious in the first place.
We won’t know for a while, but we do know that with M&S resurgent, JLP’s supermarkets and department stores have lost some of their lustre as the destination of choice for Britain’s middle classes.
So what were the firm’s benchmarks? Back in September it had said it was seeing strong demand and expected a significant rise in profits for the year to January. The prior year’s pre-tax profit had been £56 million and the year before that it made a loss.
It had also talked about its turnaround efforts paying off and that it was seeing a “considerable improvement” in performance, with the John Lewis chain in particular expected to benefit from a buoyant second half.
Christian Dior Couture announced on Friday that Kim Jones, its Dior Homme artistic director, is leaving the post after seven years.
It’s been rumoured for some time that he would exit the label but it’s not yet known what his next step will be.
Jones has been widely praised for his work at Dior with his latest men’s collection shown this month being hailed as a success.
He’s been a key creative at LVMH having also designed its Fendi women’s collections. And he helmed Louis Vuitton’s menswear before he joined Dior.
The company said it “wishes to express its deepest gratitude” to the designer “who has accelerated the development of Men’s collections internationally and has greatly contributed to the worldwide influence of the House by creating an inspiring wardrobe that is both classic and contemporary, and connected to some artists of our time”.
And Delphine Arnault, who’s chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture,added: “I am extremely grateful for the remarkable work done by Kim Jones, his studio, and the ateliers. With all his talent and creativity, he has constantly reinterpreted the House’s heritage with genuine freedom of tone and surprising, highly desirable artistic collaborations.”
Jones meanwhile called it a “true honour to have been able to create my collections within the House of Dior, a symbol of absolute excellence. I express my deep gratitude to my studio and the ateliers who have accompanied me on this wonderful journey. They have brought my creations to life. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the artists and friends I have met through my collaborations. Lastly, I feel sincere gratitude towards Bernard and Delphine Arnault, who have given me their full support.”