Candidates jockey for shadow cabinet September 23, 2010 ED Miliband will offer his brother the job of shadow chancellor if he emerges victorious in tomorrow’s leadership election, according to campaign insiders. David Miliband was seen as a shoo-in for the leader’s job before younger sibling Ed threw his hat into the ring, and friends say he could quit politics if he misses out [...]
WORLD’S RICHEST RACK UP THE BILLIONS September 23, 2010 GOOD times are rolling back, steadily and surely, if the latest Forbes rich list is anything to go by. Amid all the doom and gloom last year, well over three quarters of the 400 billionaires on the list saw their wealth tank, with almost $40bn (£25bn) draining out of the coffers of the top ten. [...]
Asda is given go-ahead for Netto deal September 23, 2010 ASDA will sell around a quarter of its newly-acquired Netto supermarkets, the Office of Fair Trading said yesterday, in a blow to the grocer’s expansion into smaller city-centre outlets. Asda paid £778m for Netto in May, but said yesterday it will find buyers for 47 shops after the OFT raised competition concerns. The supermarket is [...]
M&B profit fed by food sales September 23, 2010 PUBS and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers yesterday reported a surge in food sales in recent weeks and said it was looking to make acquisitions as it re-shapes itself into a food-led business. M&B, which has over 2,000 pubs and restaurants and whose brands include Harvester, All Bar One and Toby Carvery, reported a 4.4 [...]
Luminar hit by another fall in revellers at clubs September 23, 2010 NIGHTCLUB owner Luminar yesterday reported a further slump in sales as fewer revellers went clubbing at its venues. Luminar, which issued three profit warnings in its last financial year, said sales at its 76 clubs were down 20.2 per cent in the 26 weeks to 26 August with admission revenue down by 26.5 per cent [...]
Foyles profits surge after boom at London flagship September 23, 2010 Foyles bookshop yesterday announced profits ahead of expectations for the financial year with operating profits up five-fold year-on-year. Like-for-like sales grew by 9.7 per cent, following a bumper Christmas. The net pre-tax profit figure for the year ended 30 June was £335,935 whilst turnover grew by 1.9 per cent to £23.1m. The directors have once [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR BOOKSELLERS IN THE DIGITAL AGE ? September 23, 2010 ANTHONY COLLINS | TD SECURITIES I think the process of buying a book from a shop will become a rarity. You can have thousands of books at your fingertips these days on a kindle or an iPad. Actually I’m thinking about getting one just now. MIKE STOKES | IT-FREEDOM People will certainly continue to buy [...]
Starbucks in plan to raise prices September 23, 2010 Starbucks said yesterday it could no longer resist “extreme” surging coffee prices and would be forced to raise some prices. Chief executive of the US-owned chain Howard Schultz said he had tried to freeze prices as long as possible. But he admitted: “The extreme nature of the cost increases has made it untenable for us [...]
Alexon upbeat on trading September 23, 2010 Fashion retailer Alexon has posted a marginally higher pre-tax profit for the first half in spite of lower stock levels and said that trading since the half year looked promising. There was a 10 per cent fall in revenue at the company, whose brands include Ann Harvey, Eastex and Dash but it reported an adjusted [...]
China denies cheap yuan September 23, 2010 PRESIDENT Barack Obama met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday as US lawmakers appeared closer than ever to acting on long-standing threats to penalise China for keeping its currency artificially low. Wen staged a pre-emptive defence of China’s policies ahead of the meeting, flatly rejecting any link between the level of the Chinese yuan, or renminbi, [...]