Woolworths given new life June 24, 2009 Shop Direct Group is today giving Woolworths a new lease of life in an online form. Chief executive, Mark Newton-Jones acquired the brand name twenty weeks ago after the highstreet retailer collapsed and has since launched woolworths.co.uk. Pick’n’Mix and twenty different types of piñata are a few of the products that will be sold on [...]
McBride beats City forecasts June 24, 2009 McBride, Europe’s biggest maker of retailer own-brand household products, said yesterday full-year underlying profit would beat analysts’ forecasts following a pickup in growth in the fourth quarter. The firm, which supplies supermarkets like Tesco with own-label goods, said operating profit before one-off items and goodwill would be at least £35m for the year ended 30 [...]
Antigua fires finance regulator June 24, 2009 Antigua and Barbuda has fired its chief financial regulator Leroy King, who has been accused of accepting bribes from Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford. Sir Allen was charged last week with a £4.2bn scheme to defraud investors.
Bad shops are to blame for our withering High St June 24, 2009 THIS week a rare opportunity to watch television saw me glued to a programme presented by the self-styled “Queen of Shops” Mary Portas. Focusing on the death of that great British institution the High Street, Portas probed the decline of traditional retailers and voiced her fears for the future of our nation of shopkeepers and [...]
Stagecoach’s buses boom, trains falter June 24, 2009 RAIL and bus group Stagecoach said yesterday its full-year pre-tax profits were up 12.6 per cent to £196.4m on the back of a strong performance at its bus division. But the group warned its UK rail division would make a huge loss in 2010 and 2111, if an ongoing row over who should foot the [...]
FORD DRIVES HARDER BARGAIN June 24, 2009 FORD will be putting up the price of cars across its UK range by four per cent, it said yesterday, blaming the sustained weakness of the pound against the Euro. The price increases will begin on 1 July. “The total revenue impact of the currencies has been huge — well into nine figures — on [...]
Cable & Wireless powers ahead with a fifteen-year National Grid agreement June 24, 2009 COMMUNICATIONS group Cable & Wireless (C&W) yesterday secured a 15-year deal with National Grid, worth £207m, to support electricity transmission in the UK. C&W will design, deliver and manage a telecoms network for National Grid, becoming a key player in a new era of power transmission, and challenging BT’s dominant position as a next a [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 24, 2009 Close BrothersThe financial services group has appointed Sven Guckelberger as a managing director to its corporate finance advisory arm, Close Brothers Corporate Finance, which has recently been sold to Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe. Guckelberger will join the restructuring and debt advisory group. Fenchurch The investment banking boutique has hired Julian Avery as a senior adviser, [...]
Slaughters in fracas with Lib Dem peer June 24, 2009 LORD Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, has become embroiled in a row with “magic circle” legal firm Slaughter and May after he accused it of handing the government a “simply mind-blowing” £22m bill. The bill relates to “financial stability” work carried out for the Treasury in the the financial year 2008 to 2009. Slaughters [...]
Luxury London house prices recover to rise 4.3 per cent in the second quarter June 24, 2009 LUXURY London house prices have recorded their first quarterly growth since beginning to slide from the peak of September 2007, according to the latest quarterly research from property group Savills. The report found prime central London house prices rose 4.3 per cent during the past three months – effectively wiping out the falls seen in [...]