Halloween and the half-term holidays spelled good news for UK retailers, with the last week of October becoming the busiest shopping week of the year. 

The deadline for entry to the DIY Week Awards is fast approaching, with just seven days left to get your top product or stand-out retail business recognised. Don't miss out. 

Argos will launch 'Red, White and Blue' Fridays leading up to Black Friday as part of its Christmas campaign. 

General retailer Home Retail Group, owner of Argos, Homebase and Habitat, has reached the first £1 million milestone for Macmillan Cancer Support, since the launch of its two-year partnership in March this year. 

The annual Global Retail Theft Barometer, underwritten by Checkpoint Systems, reveals that UK retailers lost more than £3.1bn worth of inventory in 2014, equating to 0.89% of total retail sales, with shoplifting the biggest problem for home improvement stores. 

In a deal sealed yesterday, the owners of Wilbys Home Hardware have added a builder's merchant to their chain of three Suffolk and Norfolk hardware shops. 

With weather forecasters predicting a cold winter ahead, retailers should now be getting their wild bird care departments in shape in order to maximise sales in this key period, says Gardman. 

A series of training events is being rolled out around the UK early next year aimed at helping garden centres maximise sales. 

UK retail sales are set to grow by 2.5% in December 2015, reaching £42bn, but the appetite for spending online is stabilising. 

Don't miss your chance to shine at the DIY Week Awards - get your entry in by Friday, November 13. 

Another good result in the third quarter means that hardware and DIY independents have now enjoyed the longest-running period of sales growth of independents across all sectors. 

In a bid to raise consumer awareness of the environmental challenges facing the planet Kingfisher stores are to offer discounts on energy-saving products to coincide with the upcoming United Nations climate change conference in Paris. 

Leading global information services provider Experian is warning that while last year's Black Friday madness overwhelmed some delivery operations, this year's follow-up will be even more challenging. 

Gorilla Glue has successfully rolled out its core range of tapes into all B&Q stores across the UK. 

Merchanting and DIY business Grafton Group is to acquire a major Dutch tools distributor, giving it its first foothold in the Netherlands. 

A delivery company says its new service that offers not only to deliver but also build self-assembly goods will be an industry first. 

Staff at each of Squire's garden centres have chosen and named their individual Charity of the Year, 2015/2016. 

UK home-shopping channel, QVC, took home four awards at the 2015 Top 50 Companies for Customer Service Awards 

Waitrose has launched a new assault on the cookshop market with the creation of a dedicated cookshop website and the announcement that it intends to ramp up significantly its presence in the sector. 

Wyevale Garden Centres (WGC) is maintaining its acquisition momentum with the announcement today that it has added Wych Cross Nurseries in Forest Row, East Sussex to its estate.