In the Media

• 21/05/2019 - Lancaster Guardian

  All you need to know as Lancaster's newest Lidl store opens its doors

  
  

  The new supermarket forms part of the company’s ongoing expansion and regeneration plans in England, Scotland and Wales and bosses say it has created up to 40 new jobs. The store has a 1,175m² sales area and features facilities such as an in-store bakery.
  
  Lidl GB’s Regional Head of Property, Stuart Jardine, said: “We would like to thank all those who have played a part in bringing this new Lidl store to Lancaster. It is great for us to be able to create more jobs and investment opportunities in the area.”
  
  The latest Kantar Worldpanel consumer research suggests Lidl has increased sales year-on-year, with a market share high of 5.7 per cent.

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• 20/05/2019 - Business Times

  China's Starbucks rival lists on Nasdaq with cars-to-lattes plan

  
  

  The team behind Luckin Coffee is betting that what worked for them in car rentals will prove a success with java. Their US$130 million annual cash burn - and rival Starbucks Corp's dominance in the Chinese coffee market - makes it a risky proposition.
  
  For now, American investors seem impressed enough by Luckin's aggressive expansion plan for the Xiamen-based company to raise a higher-than-expected US$561 million in its initial public offering Thursday. The stock jumped 20 per cent to US$20.38 in New York on Friday, compared with a decline in the S&P 500 Index.
  
  Reinout Schakel, the company's chief financial officer, said he was pleased with the trading debut.

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• 17/05/2019 - Irish Times

  Dunnes Stores: How it transformed from value grocery to epicurean dining destination

  
  

  It is deep into the afternoon on a weekday and four young women have met up for a late lunch. They are all aged in their early- to mid-30s, well-dressed urbanites: probably city-centre office workers or professionals on a day off.
  
  They’re a fun group, laughing and joking together; this is definitely not a business meeting. These women are obviously friends. As is the case with many younger urbanites, their food is almost uniformly healthy – mainly salads and juices.
  
  This scene in Dublin, shortly before 4pm last Monday, could have been playing out at any one of a swathe of trendy casual restaurants across the city. But this wasn’t a restaurant at all.

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• 17/05/2019 - Forbes

  China's Luckin Coffee Still Has Much To Prove After Its Richly Valued IPO

  
  

  China’s Luckin Coffee has raised $561 million in its initial public offering on the Nasdaq, but analysts question whether the company has a solid plan to reach profitability and support its future growth.
  
  The Xiamen-based company has sold 30 million American Depositary Shares at $17 apiece, the high end of its expected range of $15 to $17. The IPO values Luckin at $3.9 billion, a jump of more than 30% from its previous valuation of $2.9 billion that had been achieved in an April funding round. But skepticism remains as to whether Luckin, which was only founded two years ago, can eventually deliver meaningful profits, especially as it’s still burning piles of cash to hand out generous discounts to take on rising competition.

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• 15/05/2019 - Trusted Reviews

  Why the OnePlus 7 Pro won’t win over Galaxy S10 and iPhone XS fans

  
  

  The newly launched OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 won’t lure smartphone fans away from Apple, Samsung and Huawei, according to industry experts.
  
  Experts from Kantar and uSwitch told Trusted Reviews that, while the phones get a lot right, they won’t radically change the current state of the top end smartphone market.
  
  
  Global director for Kantar, Dominic Sunnebo, said that the dual device strategy is clever, but the top end phone market will still be firmly controlled by the company’s more established rivals.
  
  

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• 01/05/2019 - Scottish Grocer

  Domination of the discounters

  
  

  Kantar – formerly Kantar Worldpanel – painted a similarly positive picture for the discounters through its latest grocery market share figures for the 12 weeks ending 24 March.
  
  Kantar found that 13 million households visited Aldi at least once over the period, which was more than visited Morrisons.
  
  Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said London could now be an attractive proposition for Aldi, as the fastest growing region for the discounter and the region of the UK were it has its lowest market share.
  
  McKevitt said this might “go some way to explain the recently announced trial of the smaller Aldi Local format in the capital.”

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