Weekly Round-Up… 29 January, 2019

By Publications Checkout
Weekly Round-Up… 29 January, 2019

Krispy Kreme has shaken up its entire doughnut range for Valentine’s Day by transforming its doughnut into hearts and hugs. The Valentine’s doughnut range will be available from the 4th - 24th February in Blanchardstown centre, and will include a variety of flavours, including limited edition seasonal offerings.

Guaranteed Irish, the not-for-profit business membership organisation championing businesses in Ireland, will bring its 2019 ‘Better Your Business’ Activation Roadshow to Dublin on Monday 31st January. The event is the first in a nationwide series of workshops which will see businesses from across Leinster gather at the InterContinental Hotel to discuss how they can best prepare for and thrive in a post-Brexit economy.

Hotel Chocolat bucked the trend of a disappointing Christmas for many of Britain's retailers, reporting strong sales with growth in all channels - retail, digital and wholesale. While British consumers cut back on spending in the three months to December for the first time since last spring, according to official data, Hotel Chocolat said its total revenue increased 15% year-on-year over the 13 weeks to 30 December.

Johnson & Johnson is pursuing an acquisition of surgical robotics firm Auris Health Inc, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. J&J is seeking to purchase Auris at a premium to the valuation from its latest funding round that valued the company at $2 billion, Bloomberg reported https://bloom.bg/2RG9kwA. The final deal has not been reached and there is no certainty that the deliberations will lead to a sale of Auris, according to Bloomberg.

High-end supermarket Donnybrook Fair was in breach of its banking covenants last year, ahead of its sale to SuperValu brand owner Musgrave. Sales fell 6.6% in the year ending January 31 2018, with the grocer hit by competition in the retail trade, and development works which disrupted footfall at one of its stores, according to newly filed accounts.

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Supermarket giant Iceland has continued to sell own-brand products containing palm oil despite pledging to stop doing so by the end of 2018. The retailer made the promise last April, saying demand for the oil was devastating rainforests in Asia. But Iceland still sells 28 own-brand products with palm oil or fat, as well as more than 600 from other brands. Iceland said it had "fulfilled" its promise and no longer made own-brand products containing palm oil.

© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition. 

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