Retail news round-up on March 7, 2014: Majestic Wine hires new CRM agency, Waitrose plans more Scottish stores, Hilco bids for Elverys, Boohoo to begin trading on March 14.

Majestic Wine hires Indicia as CRM agency

Specialist wine retailer Majestic Wine has hired Indicia as its CRM agency, The Drum reported. The agency has been charged with creating a CRM strategy ‘centred around the individual’ in order to step up store visits through better customer engagement, and provide greater integration between on and offline communications.

Waitrose plans four new stores in Scotland

The John Lewis Partnership revealed it has plans to launch another four Waitrose stores in Scotland. The retailer aims to start with a store in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire in 2015, Herald Scotland reported. Three more Scottish outlets are in the pipeline to add to the six it presently has in locations including Helensburgh, Newton Mearns and Edinburgh, according to its managing director Mark Price.

Hilco bids to buy struggling Irish sports chain Elverys

HMV rescuer Hilco has now launched a bid to acquire sports chain Elverys, according to the Irish Independent. A total of six parties are in the frame to purchase the Co Mayo business that has 56 outlets across Ireland.

The remaining six bidders have advanced to a due diligence stage following indicative offers received by a court-appointed examiner in recent weeks. It is understood there are three other bidders also in the mix. Final bids will be invited for the business following the current due diligence phase and a preferred bidder is likely to be chosen within the next two weeks.

Boohoo.com to begin stock market trading on March 14

Online fashion retailer Boohoo.com will begin trading on 14 March at 50p per share, competing with larger rival Asos.com on AIM. Boohoo has raised £300m, giving it a market capitalisation of £560m, and it will trade at around a 50 per cent discount to Asos shares. Boohoo was set up by Mahmud Kamani and business partner Carol Kane in 2006. Kamani and his family will have reduced their stake from 82% to 44% making a tidy sum in the process when it floats. Kane will retain her original 9.8% holding after the listing.

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