London food
fromBusiness Matters
12 hours agoAmazon bets on Whole Foods to salvage its troubled UK grocery ambitions
Amazon is converting Fresh stores into Whole Foods outlets in the UK, aiming to succeed in the competitive grocery market.
Ask any Gen Xer who grew up going to Mr Gatti's, and they almost always have a story loaded with nostalgia. The affinity felt by millennials and Gen Xers who experienced Gatti's during their formative years is often palpable, with customers expressing deep emotional connections to the brand and its pizza offerings from their childhood experiences.
The Bouqs story starts long before the company appeared on . Co‑founders John Tabis and Juan Pablo "JP" Montúfar met at Notre Dame, connecting around a shared frustration with the traditional floral industry. The two founded The Bouqs in 2012 and designed the company to ship bouquets directly from farms to customers' doors. The choice cut out middlemen and pushed against legacy models, where orders bounce from website to wholesalers to local florists.
We wanted to create a fun space. It is kind of inspired by all the parts that are related to the brand. For instance, the factory: if you buy a product, there's like a production line where the product comes out. We also show machines where phones go through testing, like USB port testing or water resistance testing. So we just wanted to bring that world together,
Welcome to DCN's Weekly Coffee News! Subscribe here for all the latest coffee industry news. Also, check out the latest career opportunities at CoffeeIndustryJobs.com. "Room for Cream" Coffee Docuseries Launches on YouTube Filmmaker and performer Grant Garry has launched Room for Cream, an unscripted documentary web series framed around human connection and coffee, with episodes filmed at Pasadena's Jones Coffee Roasters and on farms in Guatemala. New episodes are releasing weekly on Grant Garry's YouTube channel.
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Apple currently has five branded stores in India, including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Noida. The most recent one, and the second in Delhi NCR, was inaugurated in December 2025 at the DLF Mall of India in Sector 18, Noida. During the Cupertino-based tech giant's recent quarterly earnings call, Apple announced that it will "soon" open a second store in Mumbai.
Barclays has provided a £4 million trade loan to British high-performance apparel brand ThruDark, supporting its continued growth and accelerating its retail expansion strategy. The funding, provided by Barclays UK Corporate Bank, has been deployed to strengthen ThruDark's working capital following the crucial Golden Quarter trading period, encompassing Black Friday, Christmas and January sales. It has also enabled the brand's high-profile festive retail activation at Battersea Power Station, bringing its performance-led apparel to one of London's most prominent retail destinations.
The company today issued a brief release stating that it will soon be opening its first global flagship store, which will be located in India. Aside from that, there is no mention of date and exact location for this store. The only other information in this release is a somewhat cryptic image of what looks like it could be a blade sign placed outside the store. The sign shows a blue damselfly, which points to a return to using bugs as mascots by the company.
Sometimes it takes a few decades to really hit your stride. That appears to be the case with Canadian fashion retailer Aritzia, which has experienced considerable success in recent years. But 2025 has been something else entirely. Over the past 12 months, the brand - and its stock price - have kicked into overdrive as the company accelerated its physical and digital expansion.
The duo, both 31, met in 2018 and became inseparable while working at GuavaPass, a fitness app. Yiong was laid off when Guavapass was acquired by ClassPass in 2019. Two years later, during the pandemic, Chng was laid off from her marketing job. The duo reunited to launch an athleisure brand,then called Butter, despite having no experience in fashion or entrepreneurship.
When the expansion was announced last year, the government said all retailers would have a 10 per cent wholesale discount from the LCBO until an overall new wholesale pricing structure is rolled out in 2026. This spring, the government temporarily increased that discount to 15 per cent for bars, restaurants and convenience stores, citing the need to protect them from impacts of U.S. tariffs.
Earlier this month, when a sudden swirl of social media rumors began to suggest that the polarizing bakery chain was closing down, some of the online reactions were downright gleeful. "Too sweet and too expensive!" went one typical comment. The chatter was so loud that Crumbl cofounder Sawyer Hemsley took to TikTok to dispel the rumor, explaining that the fast-growing chain is just moving offices as it prepares for its next wave of expansion.
Beginning in 2022, working with strategic partner BYNK Media, Kotn shifted its creative and marketing strategy to a more community-focused approach, foregrounding its unique origins, social mission and global appeal. It invested in expanding its brick-and-mortar retail portfolio, positioning stores as creative hubs and community spaces rather than just distribution channels. It reframed its identity from being a " sustainable brand," with one of the highest B Corp certifications,
Williamsburg, in particular, has its own distinct identity and character separate from Manhattan, and we're excited to be part of a neighborhood that has shown the brand such strong support. We also let customer feedback guide us. There's been consistent demand for a Salomon store in Brooklyn, and our data channels clearly reflect this strong interest.
Kardashian's ventures, including her cosmetics brand SKKN, have attracted young shoppers and benefited from her vast social media following. Similarly, other celebrity-backed brands have also drawn venture capital investment, as firms bet on the marketing power and built-in audiences of high-profile founders to drive consumer demand. Elf Beauty agreed to buy Hailey Bieber's makeup and skincare brand, Rhode, for about $1bn earlier this year, while Rihanna-backed Fenty Beauty and Khloe Kardashian's Good American have also drawn venture capital funding.
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In a deal valued at $4 billion, Boyu is acquiring 60% of Starbucks China's business, with plans to close in the first three months of the year, per a press release. The release said that the Boyu partnership would help elevate Starbucks' customer experience in China and speed expansion into new cities. In an open letter on Monday, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said that through the Boyu partnership, he aims for Starbucks to grow from 8,000 stores in Chinato over 20,000.
"We're thrilled to expand into 1,600 Walmart stores nationwide and make our delicious modern snacks available to more people," said April Siler, CEO of Good Eat'n. "Exciting options that are good and a fun and pleasurable experience is what we are all about. Today's consumers want better ingredients and clean labels without sacrificing taste - and we're proud to deliver just that."
Since its founding in in Antwerp in 2016, Loop has become a best-selling, highly imitated earplug brand, racking up collaborations from Coachella to McLaren to Swarovski. When Bodewes and O, childhood friends who bonded over a mutual love of music festivals and motorcycles, began suffering from tinnitus in their late twenties, they found a gap in the market for affordable but stylish earplugs.
"This year was supposed to be the year of retail. Unfortunately, things kind of took a turn with the tariffs," Kinoshita said on the DTC podcast this summer. "That's just the nature of when you manufacture something overseas. You don't fully control your supply chain, you don't fully control your costs. It's not expected, but it's part of the game."
The New York City-based designer, who until now has had a small retail footprint and big fashion clout, is releasing a limited collection with Gap (big footprint, big clout). The collection is anchored by core Gap and Sandy Liang categories, like denim and outerwear, including a precious pair of carpenter jeans with bow stitching on the pocket, a faux fur half zip in a Bambi-inspired print, and two heavy-weight fleece hoodies glamified with the Sandy Liang logo or her signature bow.