Beales is preparing to close all its stores as no buyer has come forward to snap up the business. But it seems its administrators are still trying to find someone who will buy at least part of it as a going concern.

Simple could be among the brands that Unilever chooses to sell as it kicks off a review of its beauty portfolio in order to focus on names with strong growth potential.

Shopping centre landlord Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield disposed of several retail assets and scaled back its development pipeline in 2019 after facing a “challenging” retail environment in the UK.

Stockmann is forging ahead with its transformation plans and while the signature department store chain is loss-making and the market is tough, the firm is upbeat on its prospects and of those of the more buoyant Lindex.

Europe-focused online fashion retail giant Zalando has strengthened its leadership team, appointed three senior vice-presidents, including two internal promotions and one crucial newly-established role.

Valentine’s Day is set to be worth just over £1 billion in revenue this year in Britain, a minimal 0.6% rise on last year and actually a fall if inflation is taken into account, GlobalData said on Wednesday.

Terry von Bibra had been working for the Chinese e-commerce giant since 2015, initially in German-speaking countries, East Europe and Turkey. He then took charge of all of Europe in 2016.

Skincare was the star category in the UK prestige beauty market last year with the overall high-end beauty sector falling to £2.6 billion in 2019, but skincare turning in respectable growth.

Two new spending surveys, from Barclaycard and the BRC, showed fashion stores struggling in January, discount stores on the rise and online spend strengthening its hold on UK consumers overall.

The French leather goods and trunk maker, owned by the Arnault Group, has recruited Lisa Attia from LVMH’s Sephora as its new CEO. She will be taking over from Guillaume Davin. 

The managing director of Selfridges, Simon Forster, has left the luxury department store retailer after a little over a year in the job with Anne Pitcher taking the helm temporarily.

The week has started with some good news for the under-pressure malls sector with the latest UK footfall report from Springboard being headlined 'The start on the road to recovery for shopping centres'.

It's been a bad year for Beales so far and it got worse on Friday with the mid-market department store chain set to close 12 shops – more than half of its total – as administrators continue to seek a buyer for the rest.

L'Oreal's shares rose on Friday after fourth-quarter figures from the French cosmetics company allayed concerns over the impact of China's coronavirus health crisis on its business.

Sharon White has only been in her post as chair of John Lewis Partnership for a few days but she's already warned that the retailer is facing its toughest decisions in almost 100 years.

Clarity on Brexit and ongoing discounting combined to make consumers feel better about shopping last month. A report showed like-for-like sales in physical stores grew 5.7% during January and fashion rose even faster.