Shoe repair business Timpson launches its thousandth store January 19, 2014 FAMILY-OWNED shoe repair business Timpson is opening its thousandth shop today in Wrexham, North Wales, as the company’s expansion plans gather momentum. Timpson will be renting the space at a Tesco site, a spokesperson from the supermarket chain told City A.M. The unit is part of a joint venture between Timpson and Tesco. It will [...]
G4S sells Canadian division of cash solutions unit for £61m January 19, 2014 OUTSOURCING company G4S has sold the Canadian arm of its cash solutions business to Garda World for C$110m (£61m), having rejected a £1.55bn offer for the entire unit last October. The FTSE 100-quoted firm, which is struggling to turn around its reputation after a series of high-profile scandals including allegations of fraud, said on Saturday [...]
Resource Guru raises £530,000 January 19, 2014 Resource Guru, the London-based online team scheduling service with clients including ASOS and Vodafone, has raised $870,000 (£530,000) from Index Ventures in order to accelerate hiring and fund product development and customer acquisition. “We’ve been impressed how Resource Guru tackled this problem with its simple to use online tool that leads to huge time savings [...]
Amcu confirms strike at Amplats January 19, 2014 The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the main trade union representing South African platinum miners, yesterday confirmed it will strike on 23 January at Anglo American Platinum. In recent days, Amcu members had also voted to strike at rival miners Lonmin and Impala Platinum, calling for higher wages. The strikes will hit over [...]
Sabic profits undershoot forecast January 19, 2014 Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic), one of the world’s largest petrochemical groups and the Gulf’s biggest listed firm, reported a 5.7 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net income yesterday, missing forecasts. It earned 6.16bn riyals (£1bn) in the quarter, up from a slightly revised figure of 5.83 bn riyals a year earlier, Sabic said. Operating [...]
Cath Kidston prints help boost popularity January 19, 2014 Cath Kidston, the retailer famed for its English floral prints, has seen the biggest jump in consumer awareness of all brands in its sector over the last three years. According to an independent survey by consultancy firm Pragma, 62 per cent of Britons are now aware of the brand, up 11 per cent on 2011 [...]
Hays bullish after increase in UK hires January 19, 2014 Alistair Cox sees plenty of growth to come for British jobs, but skills shortages are a worry AFTER a torrid few years for the jobs market, the boss of the country’s biggest white-collar recruiter is feeling optimistic enough about the growing signs of recovery that he’s even planning to add some staff to his own [...]
The royals have business smarts January 19, 2014 WHEN it comes to getting inspiration from the royal family, the top things on your list would probably be wedding dresses, the quickest route to Balmoral if your helicopter is out of juice and how to get paint off one’s Rolls-Royce – and business and career advice probably wouldn’t register very highly. But over the [...]
Law and New Order: Kain Knight to test barristers on pop culture January 19, 2014 SOME of the City’s lawyers and barristers will be hanging up their cloaks and wigs on Wednesday 5 February as they take part in Kain Knight’s charity quiz night in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society. The teams’ knowledge of pop culture will be trialled (pun intended) during the event at the Minster Exchange in Mincing [...]
Three things you didn’t know about… January 19, 2014 Chief executive of Oppenheimer Europe Max Lami 1 The banking boss spent 18 years learning Judo and has a black belt. He feels his time spent training in Japan and other parts of Asia has left him with a Buddhist-like, open minded approach to life. 2 He flies Ryanair. He described his ideal weekend as [...]