House of Fraser, A-level results, rail fares, retail sales, Amazon: your commercial news round-up
updated on 16 August 2018
The big news from this week has to be Sports Direct founder (and all-round nice guy) Mike Ashley snatching up troubled department store House of Fraser mere minutes after it announced its collapse into administration last Friday morning. Ashley claims that he will make the store the ‘Harrods of the high street’ and is aiming to keep 47 of the 59 stores open. Other news this week includes A-level results and rail fares increase; it’s all in your weekly commercial news round-up:
- Today’s A-level results reveal a rise in top grades as students are awarded the highest proportion of As and A*s in six years. Overall 97.6% of A-level entries were graded A* to E, although examiners are dismissing the rise in top grades as “extremely marginal”.
- Bad news for commuters as UK rail fares are set to increase by another 3.2% in January 2019. With the recent travel chaos on many train lines, campaigners are calling for a freeze in fares.
- But it’s good news for the UK’s retail sector as the Office for National Statistics reports an increase in sales by 0.7% in July, boosted by online shopping, promotional discounts and the World Cup and recent good weather encouraging strong food and drink sales.
- US retail giant Amazon is preparing to wage war with insurance comparison sites comparethemarket.com and GoCompare as they consider setting up their own version of a comparison site. If the launch goes ahead, it would be a major move into the UK’s financial services industry, although it’s unclear at the moment exactly what the insurance products on the site would be.
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