Recently in Retail Category

The battle of the malls in Aberdeen is definitely being stepped up.

The opening of Hammerson owned Union Square last year was something of a landmark with several new brands such as Apple and Hollister coming to the city.

Footfall has been impressive and informal chats with some of the retailers trading in the centre suggest they are happy with their numbers.

However the Scottish Retail Property Limited Partnership (SRPLP) - a Land Securities and British Land joint venture - is not resting on its laurels.

It spent £2m in the refurbishment of the St Nicholas shopping centre in 2009 and has just announced a £6m upgrade of the neighbouring Bon Accord centre.

Always nice to see something we first reported in Business7 coming to fruition.

In October last year Colin McLean, operations director of Scotmid and Semichem, told me about the trial the company were doing of a standalone perfume business in this interview.

Having seen a good uplift in Semichem stores by introducing a more upmarket fragrance selection McLean, pictured, was sure the success could be repeated in a standalone brand.

Now it has been confirmed The Fragrance House concept is being rolled out.

ONE of the most frustrating aspects of working as a journalist is when people or organisations are unwilling to speak to you.

Certainly it is more common than you would expect to find extremely successful Scottish businesses which have no interest in talking about what they do.

And while some entrepreneurs naturally take to being in the limelight others prefer to operate without any glare from the media.

So when I received a phone call about some festive trading figures from retailer M&Co it came as some surprise.