Your commercial news round-up: Uber, Asda, JD Sports, Ikea
updated on 04 November 2021
Reading time: two minutes
Summer has vanished in a flash leaving us with cold mornings and dark nights. Soon it will be Christmas and you’ll be gathered around the TV drinking mulled wine and watching Home Alone.
However, as the festive period nears, staying up to date with the latest commercial news remains important – use LawCareers.Net’s round-up for summaries of some of the week’s stories.
- In tech news, Uber has collaborated with Tesla to supply London drivers with electric vehicles. This partnership will boost the UK’s electric car uptake and is a huge step towards Uber’s goal to be fully electric by 2025. This deal will grant Uber drivers access to a £135 million clean air fund to buy or lease a Tesla car. This partnership is part of Uber’s green scheme which has already seen more than 4,000 of its drivers switch to an electric car.
- In retail news, Asda’s owners, the ‘billionaire Issa brothers’, plot a $300 million convenience store takeover. The brothers who founded the EG Group, are planning to buy Sprint Food Stores, which has sites across Georgia and South Carolina. A successful acquisition would mean the EG Group would be in 33 states. In October, the billionaires bought Asda for £6.8 billion from Walmart and promised to “build an even stronger Asda”. The EG group currently operates around 6000 sites in 10 countries.
- In the same vein, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has instructed JD Sports to sell Footasylum, following its in-depth investigation. The CMA found that the takeover could lead to “less choice, worse service and lower quality” of items. The JD Sports merger with Footasylum would leave customers with fewer options of where to shop, reduced discounts and higher prices. JD Sports is “furious” about this decision, calling it “inexplicable” and “beyond logic.” Footasylum was purchased by JD Sports in a deal announced in April 2019. The CMA has a statutory objective to protect competition and the benefits of consumers in the UK.
- Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, warns of price rises and lower profits due to the covid-19 disruption to global supply chains. Ikea is expecting another difficult period next year and has complained that their margins are being eaten away by covid-19. Many businesses are continuing to weather the economic impact of the pandemic. The Swedish company prides itself on low prices and over the years has taken strides to increase its affordability to third-world countries. Martin van Dam, inter Ikea’s chief financial officer said: “The rises were unavoidable because of the severity of problems in supply chains”, which has led to big product shortages.
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