Becks lined up as face of Posh new whisky April 8, 2014 DAVID Beckham is dipping his toe into the world of high-end whisky, teaming up with global drinks company Diageo to promote Haig Club, a single grain Scotch. Beckham will be joined by his manager Simon Fuller and both will be part of a responsible drinking campaign to run alongside advertising the new tipple, said to [...]
Brand Index: Cheaper supermarket brands are outflanking Morrisons April 8, 2014 GERMAN discounters Aldi and Lidl continue to expand their reach in the UK at the expense of the so-called “big four” chains, with Aldi increasing its market share by more than a third. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have all experienced a decline in sales, though Asda has proved the most resilient and Morrisons has [...]
Big four grocers all lose ground to discounters April 8, 2014 BRITAIN’S four biggest supermarket groups all lost market share over the last three months to German discounters Aldi and Lidl, with Sainsbury’s suffering the biggest drop in market share in ten years. Sainsbury’s has until this month been the only one of the big four to resist the pressure of the discounters and hold onto [...]
Lloyds struggling to identify a non-exec to reform IT system April 8, 2014 LLOYDS is having trouble finding a non-executive director who can understand its ageing IT systems and bring the bank into the modern world, its former chairman Sir Win Bischoff said yesterday. Currently Lloyds’ computer setup is made of decades-old systems from several banks, forced together over years of mergers. “We as a bank are looking for [...]
Barclays closes repayment gap April 8, 2014 BARCLAYS has accelerated its redress payments to small firms who were mis-sold interest rate swaps, official figures showed yesterday. The bank has now determined how it will repay 64 per cent of customers affected, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said. The March figure is up from 50 per cent in February and is firmly ahead of [...]
Flotations jump three-fold as Europe takes off April 8, 2014 FLOTATIONS on Europe’s stock markets in the first quarter of this year raised more money than floats in the same period of the last five years combined, PwC data showed today. Increasing confidence in the economic recovery is behind the boom, and the UK is in the lead – 32 of the 68 floats were [...]
Tchenguiz brothers plan next step in dispute with fraud office April 8, 2014 THE TCHENGUIZ brothers will on Friday apply to bring in a criminal barrister to explore whether the Serious Fraud Office or Grant Thornton committed a criminal offence, following the disclosure of documents relating to their arrests three years ago. A case management conference has been taking place over the course of this week ahead of [...]
London is home to a quarter of mortgage debt April 8, 2014 ONE IN every four pounds of outstanding mortgage debt in Great Britain is tied to a house in London, figures out yesterday showed, in the latest sign of the capital’s dominance of the housing market. Data put together by the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed the 20 most-mortgaged postcodes are all in London, as well [...]
French Prime Minister lays out tax cuts despite deficit worries April 8, 2014 THE NEW Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, yesterday gained approval from the country’s parliament for a raft of tax cuts. France’s “responsibility pact” is to include a cut in social security contributions for low earners from next year, along with an income tax discount for low-paid households. Dominique Barbet of BNP Paribas said that [...]
Eat makes loss after splashing out on new look April 8, 2014 THE BOSS of Eat has said it is on the road to recovery and that efforts to spruce up its estate are paying off despite falling to a loss last year. The sandwich, soup and salad chain, founded 15 years ago by former hedge fund manager Niall MacArthur, fell to a £521,567 loss in the [...]