New owner for Mambo
Loss-making surf brand Mambo has been sold to Andrew Gerrie, chief executive of Lush Cosmetics, through his Hong Kong investment vehicle. Outdoor retailer Blacks is rumoured to have sold the division for £800,000 as part of its restructuring.

eBay spreads its global reach
Online marketplace eBay is planning to launch in six European countries by the end of March. Greece, Denmark and Russia are among the additions and each will have a dedicated new website to allow customers to shop in their native languages.

Fewer discounts lead to increased sales for Thorntons...
British chocolate retailer Thorntons reported a 24.6 percent rise in pretax profits to £9.1 million, after cutting the discounts it gives on its products in-store. Although overall sales were down 0.7 percent year-on-year, sales of Thorntons’ branded items were up by 5.5 percent.

...and a profitable first year for My-wardrobe.com menswear
Online fashion retailer My-wardrobe.com is celebrating the first anniversary of its menswear site, recording more than £1 million sales. The collection has exceeded 100 percent like-for-like growth in sales for the first two weeks of 2010, against 2009.

Boden targets teens
Clothing retailer Boden is branching out into the teen market with the launch of its new “Johnnie B” range tomorrow (February 18th). It’s been named after the company’s founder, Johnnie Boden, who launched the business in 1991. A separate website has been set up for the collection which will follow on from the existing Mini Boden brand.

Hermes secures largest ever UK home delivery contract
Hermes has signed a new eight-year contract to continue handling the delivery requirements of Next Directory. The home shopping division has a turnover of more than £800 million and 2.2 million active customers. Next has been a Hermes customer since 1988.

Chanel to go digital?
Luxury brand Chanel is rumoured to be launching an ecommerce website in the coming months. Initially the move would see Chanel sell its fragrances online with accessories and eyewear set to follow.

International M&A: 2009 in review
Last year was marked by a record number of companies acquired out of bankruptcy proceedings or just before they were about to fall into administration. But whereas the UK and Germany saw increased M&A activity, in the USA there were considerably fewer acquisitions made in 2009 than the previous two years. Germany-based consultants BBR Associates impart stats and insight into why that may be at catalog-biz.com.

• March issue: Double feature—database management AND customer feedback solutions
• April issue: Double feature—email marketing AND our annual solutions/systems supplement.

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