RACEHORSE OWNERS DO THE DOUBLE AT GREEN’S October 20, 2011 IT HAS been two years since Lloyds Bank on Cornhill became the City outpost of Green’s. And to mark the occasion, the restaurant’s co-owner Simon Parker-Bowles threw a “double celebration” for his horse racing associates at the mezzanine Runner Bar. Double, because Parker-Bowles also unveiled the collection of silks donated by his friends: the colours [...]
Pub chief Ian Dyson to exit in high spirits October 20, 2011 IAN DYSON, chief executive of Spirit, the managed pub operator that demerged from Punch Taverns this year, will step down as chief executive on 16 December and hand the reins to his deputy, Mike Tye. The former Marks & Spencer finance chief was parachuted in to run Punch Taverns in September last year and decided [...]
Nestlé outperforms forecasts October 20, 2011 NESTLÉ, the world’s biggest food group, said weakening consumer sentiment in developed markets would make it harder to improve margins, but beat forecasts for the first nine months thanks to emerging markets. Prices for key commodities such as coffee, grains, milk and sugar should remain high despite small recent falls, which will keep pressure on [...]
Smiths profits increase fuelled by acquisition October 20, 2011 BRITAIN’S biggest wholesaler of newspapers, magazines and books Smiths News posted a 10 per cent rise in full-year underlying pre-tax profits, boosted by cost cuts and the acquisition of Dawson Holdings. Nearly two years after buying Dawson Holdings’ news and magazine units, Smiths News bought the remaining assets of its rival to expand its international [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HAS SPIRIT MANAGED TO TURN ITSELF AROUND? October 20, 2011 PAUL HICKMAN | PEEL HUNT I think its good to see that the momentum is there and …the current period of like-for-like sales recovered to 4.8 per cent positive in the last eight weeks…It was good to see that current bounce back in trading because it shows the investment process is still delivering the kind [...]
Debenhams in buy-back October 20, 2011 DEBENHAMS is to launch a share buy-back after yesterday posting a rise in profits. The department store chain saw pre-tax profits lift by 10 per cent to £166m in the year to 3 September. Revenues rose 4.2 per cent to £2.2bn over the year. However, like-for-like sales, excluding VAT, fell by 0.3 per cent, while [...]
Pernod beats forecasts with Asia boost October 20, 2011 FRENCH spirits groups Pernod Ricard and Remy Cointreau beat forecasts yesterday as strong Asian demand and a recovering US market lifted its quarterly sales, while Pernod sounded a cautious note amid a fragile economic climate. Pernod, the world’s second biggest spirits group behind Britain’s Diageo, said it was targeting a rise of close to six [...]
BRITVIC SALES FIZZ UP October 20, 2011 BRITVIC, which owns the Robinsons, Tango, Drench and Fruit Shoot brands, yesterday reported full-year revenue of £1.29bn, 14.6 per cent up on the previous year. Sales in the UK and France were strong while Ireland fell by 9.6 per cent. Fizzy drink sales rose 7.3 per cent over the year as a whole in Great [...]
Petrofac on track for full year October 20, 2011 British oil services firm Petrofac said it was on track to post annual profit in line with market expectations and is confident of meeting its longer term growth target, buoyed by the strong pipeline of opportunities it is seeing. Petrofac, which designs and builds oil and gas infrastructure and invests alongside producers in oil fields, [...]
Record profit at African Barrick October 20, 2011 African Barrick Gold said its profit rose to a record in the third quarter boosted by higher production and all-time high gold prices. Net profit jumped to $102m, beating the $99m consensus supplied by the company, from $40m in the year-earlier quarter as revenue surged 61 per cent. It produced 182,401 ounces of gold in [...]