Breakfast briefing: Retail news on Select, Forever 21, eBay and Burberry

Value retailer Select places offer for remaining 89 Internacionale stores

Value retailer Select has placed an offer for some of the remaining 89 Internacionale outlets, Drapers has learnt. Cafer Mahiroglu, managing director at Select, confirmed that he bid on the day Internacionale entered administration with PricewaterhouseCoopers. However, he refused to specify his bid details, including the number of shops or their locations, although Drapers understands it is not for the entire estate.

PwC partner Bruce Cartwright told Drapers the team had received ‘one or two calls’ from parties ‘expressing an interest in bits of the business or stock.’ Cartwright declined to comment on specific bids, adding the team was still evaluating what they have to offload. “We are quite open to receiving any expressions of interest because it’s clearly better for the [Internacionale] business and better for the employees,” he said.

Forever 21 UK widens full-year pre-tax loss

Forever 21 UK has incurred a pre-tax loss of over £66.55m for the 12 months to February 28, 2013, Drapers reported. This is up from a loss of £7.6m in 2012. Impairment charges totalled more than £44m. The retailer’s UK revenues climbed 59% year on year to £37m. Gross profit surged 40% to £15.2m.

eBay launches digital initiative to assist retailers trade overseas

A digital initiative has been launched by online marketplace eBay.co.uk to help 90,000 UK retailers and suppliers trade overseas, The Telegraph reported. The auctioneer is to create stores on international eBay sites, thereby enabling British businesses to sell to millions more shoppers across Europe. This move is attempts to aid more small companies export their goods. The site encompasses translation tools to breakdown language barriers and, paired with the global payment system Paypal, will help British retailers trade in different currencies. The initiative is accompanied by eBay’s top five export tips for British SMEs.

Burberry files lawsuit against SBW over trademark violation

British fashion house Burberry has alleged Korean underwear maker SBW of copying the luxury brand’s trademark check patterns. In the lawsuit filed, the company is seeking 100m won in damages from SBW for infringing trademarked designs.