New Look sales drop due to ‘unseasonable’ weather September 11, 2019 New Look sales plunged in the first quarter as the retailer battled challenging high street conditions. The figures Core like-for-like sales were down 10.1 per cent, which the company blamed on lower footfall due to “highly unseasonable weather” and consumer uncertainty. Read more: New Look posts £500m loss as turnaround continues Total revenue was £238.3m in [...]
UK electoral system vulnerable to foreign hacking, say officials September 11, 2019 On the brink of an election, The UK does not have time to bring forward measures to resist the sort of social media and misinformation campaigns carried out by hostile states that have affected some Western nations, officials say. Following the 2016 Brexit referendum, some defeated remain campaigners alleged that a misleading social meda campaign [...]
Sorrell’s S4 Capital sees earnings slip amid rapid expansion September 11, 2019 Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has posted a decline in earnings for the first half as the advertising company splashed the cash on acquisitions and staff expansion. Read more: Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital buys influencer agency IMA The figures S4 Capital’s revenue rose 42 per cent to £88m in the six months to the end [...]
Uber and Lyft costs set to rise as California passes AB5 gig economy workers bill September 11, 2019 California has passed a controversial bill that means gig economy workers are set to be classified as full-time employees. The move, expected to be signed and passed into law by California governor Gavin Newsom, would pile pressure on companies like Uber and Lyft, which rely on self-employed workers. Read more: How Uber’s quiet cabs are [...]
British Airways strikes: Airline warns of continued disruption September 11, 2019 British Airways has warned of continued disruption to flights after pilots held a two-day strike in a row over pay. The airline said hundreds of its planes and pilots were in the wrong place following the strike action, which led to nearly all flights being cancelled on Monday and Tuesday. Read more: British Airways pilots [...]
Galliford Try sees profits sink amid Bovis Homes sale talks September 11, 2019 Galliford Try suffered a 27 per cent slump in profits in its latest financial year, it revealed today, a day after it restarted talks to sell its housebuilding arm to Bovis Homes for £1.1bn. Read more: Galliford Try’s share price rockets as it targets £1.1bn Bovis Homes sale The figures Pre-tax profits crashed 27 per [...]
Vestager’s re-hire leaves the UK on the back foot September 11, 2019 Apple last night launched its latest shiny thing to come out of Cupertino, the iPhone 11 Pro, at its now-to-be-expected “high achiever” price tag. The company has forged a reputation of late for putting its hardware products further out of reach of the masses, while placing its services at the more affordable end of the [...]
Service unavailable: Don’t let an outage break trust in your business September 11, 2019 Across the tech industry, there is a crisis of trust that is centred around how companies handle data – from network provider Cloudfare’s outage in July that saw a vast number of websites around the globe go down, to the big four tech firms facing antitrust hearings in the US. Recent research by Veeam highlights that [...]
DEBATE: Has John Bercow done more harm than good as House of Commons speaker? September 11, 2019 Has John Bercow done more harm than good as House of Commons speaker? Lauren McEvatt, managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says YES. John Bercow, with his regular abuses of convention and obvious partisanship, has presided over a gross politicisation of the formerly independent nature of the speaker of the House of Commons. A role which [...]
The anti-Boris establishment has learnt the wrong lesson from the rise of Nazism September 11, 2019 Never ones to shy away from controversy, Britain’s venerable BBC has recently decided to tantalise viewers of its new documentary, Rise of the Nazis, with the suggestion that something similarly awry might be occurring in the UK today. The BBC’s own media centre touts the contemporary relevance of the programme as being “a timely look [...]