C&C quenches its thirst with a cider acquisition spree November 30, 2009 IRISH drinks group C&C yesterday said it had acquired the UK cider assets of Constellation Brands – including Blackthorn, Olde English and Gaymer – for £45m in cash. C&C chief executive John Dunsmore said the price of the assets was “highly attractive”, while analysts said the deal handed the company a third of the UK [...]
WESTFIELD CHEERS GERONIMO November 30, 2009 GERONIMO INNS, the London-focused pub chain, yesterday opened the first pub inside Westfield shopping centre. Geronimo has ploughed £800,000 into its new The Bull site, which seats 130 people over two floors and will create 30 jobs. Geronimo currently has 28 pubs in its portfolio.
More jobs axed at GM’s UK arm November 30, 2009 Vauxhall is set to cut more than 350 jobs at one of its two factories in the UK. “As part of the consultation process commenced… last week, the GM manufacturing facility in Luton has now begun its own period of consultation between unions and local management,” it said yesterday. Jobs will go at Luton “to [...]
RHJ’s profit is up on one-offs November 30, 2009 Belgian holding company RHJ International reported a narrower first-half operating loss yesterday, and a rare net profit due to one-off gains from industrial activities it ultimately plans to divest. RHJ, which last month announced a £225m purchase of Commerzbank’s wealth management unit Kleinwort Benson, said its first-half operating loss excluding impairment charges was £28m, a [...]
Bank reports a rise in home loan approvals November 30, 2009 HOME loan approvals rose in October to a 19-month high as the housing market showed signs of recovery. Banks approved 57,345 mortgages in October against 56,205 in September, the highest since March 2008 and the 11th monthly rise in a row, the Bank of England said. Net mortgage lending rose by £922m in October versus [...]
British consumers repay record amount of debt November 30, 2009 BRITISH consumers paid back a record amount of unsecured debt in October according to the Bank of England, which reported yesterday that net consumer credit fell by a record £579m in October. This marked the largest monthly fall since records began in 1993 and was the fourth monthly repayment in a row. City economists had [...]
Money supply weakens November 30, 2009 The supply of money in the UK economy rose in October by 1.6 per cent on the previous month on the broad M4 measure. But the annual growth rates slowed and the Bank of England’s preferred measure of the money supply (which excludes intermediate financial companies)?showed a 0.7 per cent drop, following a similar fall [...]
US data shows economy on track November 30, 2009 Manufacturing and business activity in parts of the US gathered steam in November, data showed yesterday, keeping the economy on track for recovery, though continued weakness in the labour market will constrain growth, economists said. Business activity in the Midwest and in New York City expanded more than anticipated in November, according to the Institute [...]
Inflation returns to Eurozone November 30, 2009 Prices are rising again in the Eurozone according to preliminary estimates from Eurostat. Consumer price inflation in the single currency area rose to 0.6 per cent in November from -0.1 per cent the previous month. This marked an end to five straight months of deflation. But the inflation was down to energy-price base effects which [...]
Online organisation tools are the next big thing November 30, 2009 FREQUENTLY I find myself in discussions on panels where some well-intentioned moderator asks, “when will the advertising market come back?” Sir Martin Sorrell and other advertising executives frequently get quoted on their views on this subject, and overall, most people seem to think that the dip is cyclical, and if we wait long enough, good [...]