Ahold Delhaize reports fruitful end of year sales with online boost February 17, 2021 Supermarket giant Ahold Delhaize has reported better than expected fourth quarter sales, driven by a surge of online orders due to Covid-19. Ahold said its sales rose 18 per cent to €19.6bn, topping the €18.5bn seen in a company-compiled consensus. Underlying operating income in the period was €811m, also beating a consensus forecast of €771m. [...]
Tobacco giant Imperial Brands hires new finance chief February 17, 2021 Imperial Brands has appointed a new finance chief, with the current CFO set to step down after seven years with the tobacco firm. The company said this morning that Lukas Paravicini, currently chief financial officer of agricultural commodities group ED&F Man Holdings, will join the board from 5 August or earlier. Paravicini – who will [...]
‘Beanz on bix for breakfast’ boosts brand scores for Weetabix and Heinz February 17, 2021 Last week, an "unholy union" of Weetabix and Heinz - featuring "beanz on bix for breakfast" - prompted popular outcry on social media.
Most UK pubs to stay closed under April beer garden plans, trade body warns February 16, 2021 Most UK pubs will be unable to open under proposals to allow outdoor trading to resume in April, the industry’s trade association has warned. The British Beer & Pub Association today said 29,000 UK pubs will still remain closed if outdoor service resumes in April as they do not have big enough beer gardens to [...]
City of London waives fee for restaurant outdoor dining licences February 16, 2021 Restaurants in the City of London will not be charged in order to provide outdoor seating areas after Square Mile authorities extended its policy on free pavement licences. The City of London Corporation has today agreed to continue issuing pavement licenses free of charge for “suitable premises” for a further six months. Some of the [...]
Booze subscription service Virgin Wines to list on AIM in £100m move February 16, 2021 Booze subscription service Virgin Wines to list on AIM in £100m move
Storage firm Safestore hails ‘excellent’ UK trading February 16, 2021 Safestore, the self-storage firm, said full-year earnings are likely to hit the top end of expectations following strong trading in the first quarter, driven by an “excellent” UK result. Group revenue was up 9.8 per cent and like-for-like sales were up 6.6 per cent, with a 8.3 per cent surge in UK sales. Occupancy increased [...]
Deliveroo targets 8 March for bumper IPO kick-off – report February 15, 2021 Deliveroo could kick off proceedings for its highly anticipated London listing as early as next month, Sky News today reported. The food delivery firm is said to be mulling beginning the float process on 8 March – a little over three weeks time. But insiders told Sky that the date was not yet set in [...]
Five charts that show the impact of Covid-19 on the tourism industry February 15, 2021 The travel and tourism industry has been one of the sectors hit hardest by the pandemic, with lockdowns and travel restrictions all but shutting business at times. Today the Office of National Statistics released its latest analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on the industry, and it doesn’t make for pretty reading. In 2018 the [...]
Why lockdown winners are not vaccine losers February 15, 2021 | City Talk The past year has brought significant changes to all our lives and sped up the growth of a number of consumer and leisure trends. Online shopping is an obvious example and the same is true for some of the other “lockdown winners”: namely computer games and cook-at-home meal kits. Like online shopping, we think these [...]