The Office of Fair Trading has given Tesco approval to proceed with its proposed acquisition of the Dobbies Garden Centres business. Tesco has exercised its right to acquire a further 16.4 per cent of Dobbies’ share capital and the Dobbies Board has recommended that Tesco’s offer of £15 a share be accepted. There are already rumblings that, once the acquisition is in the bag, Tesco could be seeking to add small format food stores to the Dobbies sites.

Fashion business Hobbs has announced the appointment of Sophie Fawcett as its head of marketing and PR. She has joined from LK Bennett.

GMTV is offering its website visitors a catalogue and travel brochure request service in conjunction with Catalink. The service is available to over 800,000 GMTV users, enabling them to request catalogues from businesses including Avon, Littlewoods and Virgin Wines.

With a programme that offers access to the knowledge of the largest single pool of expert practitioners in the multi-channel arena, this year’s ECMOD conference is not to be missed. The latest sign ups to the illustrious speaker panel include Williams Medical Supplies managing director Vincent Kerr, Ella Heeks of Abel & Cole and content management specialist Soccer Papaioannou.

The buying offices of both the Original Gift Company and Presents Direct were badly impacted by the recent floods. Twelve buying staff who work in Prospect House, the 18th century listed riverside building in Wandsworth which is owned by parent company Scotts & Co., were obliged to "pick up their samples and walk" as water came flooding in through the front door and the French windows from the gardens around the house. The buying team was back in action in alternative premises within 48 hours. Prospect House faces three months of repairs and refurbishment.