Asylum seekers claim contractor G4S put them in houses with “identifiable” red doors January 20, 2016 Asylum contractor G4S has been forced to paint asylum seekers’ front doors over after claims red paint singled them out as targets for abuse, with the contractor facing an inquiry from the Home Office over the claims. Asylum seekers in the North East told The Times they’d been targeted, claiming they were easy to identify because nearly [...]
Wetherspoon’s share price plummets on warning that profits will come at lower end of expectations after labour costs start to bite January 20, 2016 JD Wetherspoon's share price tumbled more than nine per cent this morning, after warning that full year profits will be towards the lower end of expectations, as increases in labour costs eat into the bottom line. The figures Like-for-like sales at the pub group rose 3.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to 17 January, while total [...]
EY survey shows fraud is on the rise as firms keep watch on staff January 20, 2016 Firms in the UK are increasingly worried their own employees are going to commit fraud against them with internal threats main concerns, a survey from EY has shown. One of the biggest worries that firms expressed were that employees would submit false travel and entertainment expenses, said 65 per cent of respondents. Executives surveyed by [...]
Netflix share price rockets after results beat expectations and revenue rises 23 per cent January 19, 2016 Netflix shares jumped 8.15 per cent to $116.68 in after hours trading, having jumped as much as 10 per cent, after releasing fourth quarter earnings which beat analysts expectations. The figures Revenue for the last quarter of 2015 was $1.82bn (£1.29bn), up 23 per cent from $1.49bn the year before. Earnings per share were 10 cents a share, down from 19 cents [...]
Twitter down, share price follows: Worldwide outage on web and mobile takes shares to fresh all-time lows under $17 for first time January 19, 2016 Twitter's share price sank to a new low yesterday with the weight of a "fail whale" outage that left millions of users unable to use the site throughout the day. Shares tumbled more than five per cent to a fresh all-time low of $16.95, falling under $17 for the first time, as the outage added to the social [...]
Former Barclays boss Bob Diamond’s daughter Nell Diamond launches a bedding company January 19, 2016 The daughter of former Barclays boss Bob Diamond, Nell, has launched her own bedding company Hill House Home. Diamond said on Twitter she had always wanted to work in design: https://twitter.com/nelliediamond/status/689537875310989313 Hill House Home's website promises "we’ve spent thousands of hours exploring fibres and finishes… We’re experts in bedding so you don’t have to be." Diamond said [...]
Former Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo is “reimagining the path to personal fitness” with a new software platform he’s launching with Fitify’s Bryan Oki January 19, 2016 Former chief executive of Twitter Dick Costolo revealed today he is starting a new company with Bryan Oki, the co-founder and chief exec of corporate fitness consulting firm Fitify. He also said he was joining venture capital firm Index Partners, which has previously invested in companies such as SoundCloud, Etsy, and King Digital Entertainment. He made the announcements on Twitter (where else?) six months after [...]
Britons’ thirst for prosecco gets sales fizzing at Virgin Wines January 19, 2016 Virgin Wines has posted its strongest Christmas on record after sales of prosecco bubbled over to replace champagne as the fizz of choice over Christmas and New Year. The online wine retailer said it sold 51,000 bottles of prosecco in December alone compared with 38,000 in 2014, which was five times the number of champagne [...]
Tiffany’s share price falls as it reports poor Christmas sales thanks to a strong dollar and weak tourist spending January 19, 2016 Jeweller Tiffany & Co saw its share price tank today, after reporting sales struggled over the Christmas period. Tiffany shares were trading down by around five per cent by late morning in New York. The figures Revenue in the two month holiday period over November and December fell six per cent to to $961m (£679m). On a constant exchange-rate basis, [...]
SCS shares soar as sofa chain hikes full-year profit expectations January 19, 2016 Sofa and floorings chain ScS’s share price has soared by almost 17 per cent after the company said it expects full-year profits to beat City forecasts. In an unscheduled update the retailer, which floated last year, said trading over the key Christmas and January sales period was strong within both its 97 ScS stores and 30 [...]