Hotel Chocolat reports record full-year profit January 20, 2013 HOTEL CHOCOLAT, the upmarket chocolatier, offered some hope to Britain’s beleaguered high streets this weekend after reporting record sales and profits. The retailer and cocoa grower posted a 84 per cent leap in pre-tax profits to £5.4m on sales up six per cent to £63.8m in the year to 30 June 2012. Angus Thirlwell, co-founder [...]
White Company founder earns £6m after 14 per cent profit rise January 20, 2013 CHRISSIE RUCKER, founder of the White Company took home close to £6m last year after the home furnishings and fashion retailer reported a jump in profits. According to accounts filed this month on Companies House, the retailer’s highest paid shareholder, assumed to be Rucker, earned £5.65m. The company saw profits rise to £11m in the [...]
Asking prices back on the up as 2013 rolls in January 20, 2013 A BUOYANT London housing market led UK asking prices back into growth in January, data revealed this morning. London’s homeowners added 3.6 per cent onto their asking prices during January, Rightmove said, capping off a healthy 9.6 per cent – or £16,492 – increase over the year. This robust activity in the capital drove the [...]
Household budgets still tightly squeezed despite slight easing January 20, 2013 HOUSEHOLDS’ finances remained in a vice in January, despite a slight easing in budget pressures, according to data out this morning. Markit’s household finance index climbed to 37.7 in January, up from December’s seven-month low of 36.8 – but the index still signalled rapidly deteriorating conditions, as it remained well below the 50 value that [...]
Icy weather could make UK slip back into a triple-dip recession January 20, 2013 THE ECONOMY is likely to have shrunk in the final three months of 2012, economists warned ahead of the official data’s publication this Friday, with industrial production falling and the dominant services sector flat. And the expected rebound in the first quarter – continuing the economy’s zig-zag pattern – could be squashed by the snow, [...]
Construction output to fall this year January 20, 2013 UK CONSTRUCTION output is set to fall this year, the Construction Products Association warned today, dragging down economic growth. Chancellor George Osborne hopes to boost spending on infrastructure projects, but the CPA fears output will fall 2.2 per cent.
HMRC closing down firms left right and centre to claw in tax January 20, 2013 HER MAJESTY’S Revenue and Customs ratcheted up its tough stance on tax in the last tax year, according to data released this morning. HMRC tried to shut down 5,302 firms during the 2011-12 tax year, Wilkins Kennedy revealed, an explosion of 57 per cent compared to 2010-11’s 3,367 applications. “When businesses run into trouble, often [...]
ITEM says UK economic policy must be shaken up to beat dip January 20, 2013 THE GOVERNMENT must shake up both fiscal and monetary policy to finally deliver the impetus for robust growth, a widely-regarded economic consultancy demanded this morning. Budgets must be tilted further towards infrastructure and investment spending, ITEM said, with more than just the £5bn announced in the Autumn Statement. And the Bank of England should throw [...]
Global business heads expect growth turnaround during 2013 January 20, 2013 BUSINESS leaders are looking to 2013 with optimism, after a gloomy 2012 that threatened worldwide slowdown or slump, data revealed this morning. Seventy-seven per cent of executives surveyed by FTI consulting were hopeful for “significant economic growth” during this year – a drastic improvement on the 45 per cent who expressed similar hopes in January [...]
The man with a will to make online music pay January 20, 2013 RIO Caraeff has chosen quite a week to visit the UK. As his New York-based music video company, Vevo, is embroiled in negotiations with Google over a potential investment that is rumoured to value it at $500m (£315m), Britain’s most prominent high street music retailer, HMV, is entering administration. Vevo, founded by record labels Universal [...]