Facts & Figures

• The Experian FootFall National Weekly Index saw a week-on-week increase of 4.5%, a strong performance compared with a year-on-year footfall increase of just 0.4%.
   
• Sunday saw the largest year-on-year increase of the week at 4.1%.  This is normally a period of high levels of footfall in the year, so retailers will welcome the selling opportunities available following the turbulent performances in June which were impacted by the World Cup.  (Source: BDO Sales Figures)

Retail News

• Waitrose is planning to nearly double its portfolio of shops by 2015 as the supermarket chain looks to build on recent sales gains. The supermarket aims to have 250 stores open by the end of 2010 with 40 more opening per year through to 2015. Total sales have risen 25% over the past two years. (Source: Marketing Week)
   
• Kellogg's is looking to boost sales of its cereal ranges with the re-introduction of its annual "Wake Up To Breakfast" marketing campaign. The campaign, costing £1.5m,  will include broadcast, print and online advertising, and will be complemented by an on-pack promotion to "put the subject of breakfast firmly on the national agenda." (Source: Marketing Week)
   
• According to Shoppercentric, 31% of shoppers are making major changes to spending habits with over half the population expecting the emergency budget to make things even worse for them. Furthermore, 75% of all shoppers surveyed agreed that they had made some changes to their spending. (www.theretailbulletin.com)
   
• For the second year in a row, Marks & Spencer has been voted Britain's most trusted retailer, with 39% of consumers surveyed rating it as one of their top three. The Insight Survey by Baber Smith also revealed John Lewis (26%) and Boots (23%) scoring well (Source: The Retail Bulletin)
   
• A new study from www.myvouchercodes.co.uk, has revealed that, contrary to popular belief, middle classes are the largest consumers of supermarket 'own brand' produce; with 48% claiming they will always choose a supermarket label when possible. (Source: The Retail Bulletin)

Leisure & Tourism News

• The UK outbound travel market suffered another sharp blow following the collapse of Goldtrail Travel leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded over 16-19 July 2010, affecting around 50,000 holidaymakers overall and causing major upset. (Source: Travel Daily News)
   
• Demand for self-catering holiday homes this summer has grown 20 per cent year on year at holidaylettings.co.uk™, the UK's busiest holiday home website. It is 'staycation' and short haul holidays that are drawing the most attention, along with a spike in demand for last minute bookings reflecting the heightened consumer spending awareness in tough economic times. (Source: Breaking Travel News)
   
• Ryanair has said an increase in traffic and ticket costs helped its profits inch up - but also revealed it was stung with a giant bill after the volcanic ash cloud disruption. Ryanair was fined for failing to look after passengers stranded by the ash cloud. The budget airline announced a net profit of £117.8m in the three months to the end of June - an increase of 1% over last year. (Source: Sky)

Mall & Property News

• Construction has started on the Co-operative Group head office in Manchester. The Miller Street building will comprise of 15 storey's and 325,000 sq ft and will be among the most sustainable new office buildings in Europe when completed in 2012. (Source: Property Week)
   
• Heron International has secured a £115m loan facility to finance the construction of The Heron, its residential development next to the Barbican in the City of London. The facility, believed to be the first of its kind for any significant speculative residential development since the credit crisis, is being provided by a syndicate of three banks - Santander, HSBC and Investec. (Source: Property Week)
   
• Lifestyle brand Gant will close its Bond Street store when its lease comes to an end in September. The decision not to renew the lease comes after Gant opened its largest retail store in the UK on Regent Street in January, making the store one of its global flagship stores. Gant, which has 17 stores in the UK, will open a new store in Guildford, Surrey in August. (Source: Drapers Online)

Trends

• Honda will start selling an electric vehicle as well as a plug-in hybrid in 2012 in the US and Japan, joining the race to manufacture green cars in which rivals have already taken slight leads. President Takanobu Ito said that the group decided to make the move as it had to come up with good cars "quickly and at affordable prices" in a time in which the world's needs were shifting to small and green vehicles. (Source: Orange News)
   
• Nokia Siemens Networks will acquire the majority of Motorola's wireless operations for $1.2 billion - in a major thrust to gain a stronger foothold worldwide, the company has said. The Finland-based company said the deal is "expected to significantly strengthen Nokia Siemens Networks' presence globally, particularly in the United States and Japan". (Source: Orange News)
   
• A British-designed, solar-powered aircraft has broken the endurance record for an unmanned air system. The Zephyr, currently flying over Arizona in the US, has passed the seven-day mark and is expected to fly for another week. It has more than doubled the unofficial record of more than 82 hours already held by Zephyr and has bettered the official record of more than 30 hours set in 2001. (Source: Daily Mail)

Interesting Snippet

• Artist creates works out of dollar bills. A highly-paid businesswoman gave up her job to establish an art career creating works made entirely out of dollar notes. Irina Truhanova from Latvia sketches an outline before filling it in with snippets of the bills. Her creations include Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a geisha, a Bentley car and the Statue of Liberty. (Source: Orange)
   
• World on course for hottest year since 1880 .The world is on course for the hottest year since records began in 1880 after record-breaking temperatures in four of the first six months of the year, according to meteorologists. The first six months of 2010 brought a string of warmest-ever global temperatures. (Source: Telegraph)
   
• Boat from 1700s Found at World Trade Centre, Archaeologists working at the World Trade Centre site in New York have found the remains of a wooden ship apparently buried there more than 200 years ago. The remains of the 30ft length of a wood-hulled vessel were found when workers excavating the site, where a new World Trade Centre is being built, hit a row of wood timbers, The New York Times reported. "They were so perfectly contoured that they were clearly part of a ship." (Source: Sky)

Quote of the Week

• "A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognised." - Fred Allen (1894 - 1956)