Colour me unsurprised but retail tourism analyst Global Blue reported that international tax-free shopping spending rose 7% in July from a year earlier.
Spending by Japanese tourists almost doubled year-on-year as the value of sterling slumped following the result of the EU membership referendum.
The news confirms a report from economists last week at the Office of National Statistics who went out on a limb, in the highly caveated way that economists have, that suggested the precipitous decline in sterling might have attracted overseas shoppers to the UK.
Spending time in the UK
Sterling’s slump has not done much for UK property values (other than make it cheaper for people looking for a place of their own in which to live) but that does not seem to have slowed Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN), the big beast of the house building sector.
The company said its private sale reservation rate since 1 July was 17% higher year-on-year.
After the far from surprising news that a cheaper pound has encouraged overseas visitors to spend more in Britain comes news that the warm summer has encouraged British shoppers to spend more on groceries.
Grocery sales rose 0.3% in the 12 weeks to 14 August from the corresponding period of last year, according to market research group Kantar Worldpanel.
The hard discounters Lidl and Aldi continued to grow market share, Kantar revealed, with the former seeing 12.2% growth and the latter 10.4%.
It’s not exactly “the empire strikes back” but market leader Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) managed to limit its sales decline to 0.4%, which was the best performance of the so-called Big Four (Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda & Morrisons), though the dear old Co-Op saw its sales rise by 2.8%, taking its market share to 6.6%.
Asda had another shocking period, with sales down 5.5%. No wonder the company is selling off its photo division to Photo-Me International plc (LON:PHTM) for up to £6mln.
Olympicnic
"Brexit seems to have been replaced by an Olympic 'feel-good' factor among shoppers and there were more visits to buy food and drink in the last four weeks than this time last year, with most retailers benefiting from an increase in shopper penetration,” said Mike Watkins, head of UK retailer and business insight at market research group Nielsen.
Talking of the Olympics, Britain’s team has arrived home from Rio de Janeiro. The 4x400 metres relayed team was last to arrive, having missed the changeover on the third leg…
According to the Daily Telegraph a number of Britain’s Olympic heroes are in line to receive honours, and so far as we know none of them have been major contributors to the Conservative Party or have worked in some capacity for the Tories.
Joking aside, the chief executive of the British Olympic Association, Bill Sweeney, has floated the idea of a head-to-head Ryder Cup style sporting contest between the US and UK.
Presumably, as in the Ryder Cup, at some point down the road when the competition becomes depressingly one-sided Britain will call on other European countries to come to its aid and it will turn into a US and Europe competition … assuming the UK is still regarded as part of Europe by then.
Woodford eschews bonus culture
Star stock-picker Neil Woodford has ditched bonuses at his investment fund, Woodford Investment Management.
"There is little correlation between bonus and performance and this is backed by widespread academic evidence,” said Craig Newman, chief executive and co-founder of the firm.
“Behavioural studies also suggest that bonuses can lead to short-term decision making and wrong behaviours,” he added.
Jason Granite leaves COLG's marble halls
A quick scour of what small caps retail investors are focused on this morning reveals lots of interest in ITM Power PLC (LON:ITM), Harvest Minerals Ltd (LON:HMI) and Vast Resources PLC (LON:VAST), all of which have been covered elsewhere on the Proactive Investors web site.
Investors have also been clicking on the announcement from City of London Group plc (LON:COLG) in the hope of finding out why senior executive seems to be exiting the board room at a speed that suggests the fire alarm has gone off.
Unfortunately, the company’s brief announcement does not give a lot to go on. Executive director Jason Granite, who joined in April when chief executive Jon Kent’s resignation was announced, is the latest to walk the plank.
Last week non-executive directors Andrew Crossley and Andrew Crowe quit the board, possibly tired of each being confused for the other owing to their similar names, while in March group finance director Howard Goodbourn got on his bike.
On Granite’s departure, the group said: “The board wishes to thank him for his contribution to COLG.”
As sign-offs go, it is not exactly “so long, and thanks for all the fish,” is it?