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Donald Russell secures £5.2 million loan
Mail order butcher Donald Russell has secured £5.2 million of funding from Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets to build a new fulfilment centre.  Expected to open later this month, the new centre will help Donald Russell expand its burgeoning ecommerce business.

The Hut buys Myprotein
The Hut Group, which last year bought beauty and grooming products websites Lookfantastic and Mankind, has added to its health and beauty roster with the acquisition of MyProtein.com. The Manchester-based sports nutrition company currently operates in the UK and four other European countries including Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. It has a projected turnover for 2011 of £25 million, up from £16 million last year. With the addition of MyProtein, The Hut will now achieve 40 percent of sales from outside of the UK. 

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Profits soar at Clarks
Pretax profits at shoe retailer Clarks grew by 28 percent to £109 million, with revenues up 9.2 percent to £1.28 billion. According to published reports, the growth was driven by Clarks' overseas business, particularly North America.

Sales rise at My-Wardrobe
Luxury-goods etailer my-wardrobe.com saw like-for-like sales almost double during 2010. The online retailer, which sells brands including Mulberry and Helmut Lang, repositioned itself as a retailer of “accessible luxury” and relaunched its womenswear site during the year. A relaunch of its menswear site is planned for 2012. The company has also reported strong growth in European sales during the first quarter of 2011—up 118 percent.  The growth, says founder Sarah Curran, lays the foundations for future international expansion.

ECMOD Direct Commerce Show - online registration open!
This year's show is on 30th November & 1st December at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. Both the Conference and Exhibition attract an international audience of key decision makers from the direct commerce sector making this an extremely valuable event for everyone's business calendar. You can now register online for FREE here or call Jenny Squire on 01271 866112 for further information.

Obituary: Michael Edwards
Michael Edwards, chief executive at apparel and sporting goods cataloguer/retailer Orvis, passed away on 6th May. Edwards joined Orvis as chief executive in 1996 and under his tenure the business consistently achieved year-on-year growth. Prior to joining Orvis, Edwards also worked for marketing agency Saatchi & Saatchi. 

Abandoned baskets cost e-retailers £4 billion a year
A new study has found that a third of customers abandon their online baskets before completing a purchase. According to research commissioned by Royal Mail, the lack of clarity around delivery charges, lead times, and lack of delivery options are to blame. The Delivery Matters study found that the gap between what customers expect and the service that is provided is getting wider too. Online retailers lost an estimated £4 billion in 2010 due to abandoned baskets—up from £2.7 million in 2009. 

Debenhams to test Sears for US expansion
According to published reports, Debenhams is in talks with Sears with a view to open concessions or franchise areas in Sears stores across the US.

Sales and profits up at Electros
Electronic components distributor Electrocomponents announced that in the year to 31st March 2011, underlying sales rose 21 percent to £1.18 billion with all regions seeing double-digit growth. Operating profit rose 51 percent to £119.8 million and pretax profit increased by 50 percent to £114 million.




May Catalogue Log 
Of the 91 catalogues we received in May, just 34 made no mention of a special offer on the cover. To find out what offers were the most popular and how the data compares with last year, click here.  

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