Gap to close 75 Old Navy and Banana Republic stores globally May 19, 2016 Clothing retailer Gap yesterday said it plans to close all its Old Navy stores in Japan and some Banana Republics mostly outside of North America by the end of its business year due to a continuing sales slump. Gap added that it could not reaffirm its earnings outlook for the year after having projected in February adjusted [...]
BT boss Gavin Patterson misses out on £290,000 bonus after company fails to meet customer service targets May 19, 2016 BT chief executive Gavin Patterson lost out on a £290,000 bonus thanks to the company missing its customer service targets last year. Customer experience is one of the measures the telecom giant uses to set its executives’ annual bonus, BT said in its annual report published on Thursday. The poor performance led to Patterson’s overall annual [...]
Tata bidders prepare for Monday deadline in race to save UK steel industry May 19, 2016 The seven bidders vying to buy Tata Steel's UK business are racing to finalise their bids ahead of Monday's deadline, City A.M. understands. Indian conglomerate Tata revealed last week that it would take seven bidders forward to the next stage of the buying process. It is unlikely that details of the individual bids will be made public once they [...]
Harry Potter’s spell is still working its magic on publisher Bloomsbury even as focus shifts May 19, 2016 Bloomsbury Publishing, which has been hanging on to Harry Potter’s soaring broomstick for nearly two decades now, isn’t letting go any time soon. The company reported an eight per cent rise in pre-tax profits last year following a 133 per cent surge in sales of Harry Potter books. The rise has been put down to [...]
Weird or wonderful? Google just patented a “sticky technology” to protect pedestrians in self-driving car accidents May 19, 2016 Google has patented a new “sticky” technology to prevent pedestrians in the event of an accident involving its self-driving cars. The tech giant says a sticky adhesive layer on the front end of its vehicle would prevent injuries to a pedestrian by reducing the impact of a car crash. The patent said: "The adhesive layer [...]
New homes on sale in London this weekend: from Maple & Co’s old furniture factory to apartments near the Hurlingham Club May 19, 2016 The Maple Building, Kentish Town From £525,000 The old Maple & Co furniture factory in Kentish Town has been transformed into 57 one, two and three bedroom apartments and penthouses. The six storey building, which dates back to the 19th century, has been restored by The Linton Group and retains its red brick facade alongside contemporary [...]
Focus on Notting Hill property: Prices may have fallen, but is it all down to stamp duty reform? May 19, 2016 Notting Hill hasn’t been having the best of weeks, if truth be told. On Tuesday, a report from estate agent Stirling Ackroyd revealed that average house prices had fallen in several prime central London locations. In W11, they’ve gone down by 10 per cent from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of [...]
Property of the Week: Poet and critic Ezra Pound’s house in Kensington has doubled in price in three years May 19, 2016 A few times a week, a crowd of tourists gather outside this house on Kensington Church Walk to have their pictures taken with the English Heritage blue plaque outside. Set in a quiet cobbled courtyard, this Victorian townhouse was the home of ex-pat American poet and critic Ezra Pound between 1909 and 1914 and it [...]
Drug pricing pressure working in favour of Irish pharma company UDG Healthcare May 19, 2016 Dublin-based UDG Healthcare, a provider of medical equipment and healthcare services to big and small pharmaceutical companies, is set to benefit from a squeeze on drug prices in the US. The US, which runs a free market system where drug makers can name their price, has seen the cost of drugs become a hot political topic in recent months. [...]