Vue reopens historic Leicester Square cinema with new luxury leisure features July 10, 2017 Vue Cinemas has upped its food and drink offering in its newly refurbished Leicester Square site, which has been a cinema since 1938. The chain has put £6.6m into redeveloping its West End flagship, which reopens tonight. The site was originally built by Warner Brothers, and was taken over by Vue when the company absorbed [...]
New Hamleys CEO Ralph Cunningham replaces Gudjon Reynisson July 4, 2017 Legendary toy store Hamleys has appointed a new CEO, promoting COO Ralph Cunningham to the role. He replaces Gudjon Reynisson, who has been with the company for nine years. Reynisson will now step into a vice chairman position. Read more: Peppa Pig, PJ Masks and Designated Survivor boost EOne revenues Cunningham joined Hamleys in 2013 [...]
Innocent Drinks passes £300m in sales as European growth spikes July 3, 2017 Innocent Drinks, the UK smoothie-maker which is majority-owned by Coca Cola, passed sales of £300m for the first time last year as its European presence continues to expand. Sales grew by 23 per cent in the year to 31 December 2016, coming in at £303.5m. The company saw a return to profit, making £8.5m compared [...]
Lack of online experience at major luxury brands undermining growth opportunities March 20, 2017 Lack of senior experience in ecommerce and emerging markets could be holding back profitability at top luxury brands, according to research by executive search firm DHR. The study of the world’s top 50 luxury goods businesses found that just five per cent of board members have experience in ecommerce, and only 16 per cent have [...]
More gloom for retail parks and shopping centres but High Street footfall bounces back March 20, 2017 High Street footfall rose 0.1 per cent in February, compared to a drop of 2.9 per cent in the same period last year. The figures, released in Springboard’s monthly footfall report, also showed a small recovery in overall footfall, which fell by 1 per cent in February compared to 1.3 per cent in January. However, [...]
Consumer spending growth heading for four-year low as wages stagnate March 20, 2017 Real earnings growth is forecast to be up just 0.1 per cent in 2017, slowing sharply from 1.8 per cent in 2016. As a consequence consumer spending will rise by only 1.7 per cent, its weakest rate since 2013, according to the EY ITEM Club. Last year saw a 12-year high of 3.1 per cent [...]
Next expected to reveal first profits slip since financial crisis March 19, 2017 High Street retailer Next is expected to post the first fall in its annual profits since the financial crisis this week. The company is likely to announce that pre-tax profits fell to about £792m when Next releases its results for the year to January 2017 on Thursday. This number could range between £785m and £799m [...]
Three in four Russell Group grads in senior FTSE 100 positions are women March 13, 2017 Female UK business leaders are three times more likely to need a qualification from an elite university to get top jobs than their male counterparts, according to new research by executive search agency Green Park. Among top 20 employees at FTSE 100 companies, 76 per cent of Russell Group graduates and 70 per cent of [...]
Consumer spending is up but caution appears to be growing March 13, 2017 Consumer spending for February was up 1.5 per cent on the same time last year, according to the monthly Visa UK Consumer Spending Index. This marks a jump back up from a five-month low of just 0.4 per cent year-on-year growth in January. Trends from previous months held fast, with yet another rise for e-commerce [...]
French Connection expected to announce ninth year of losses amid turnaround plan March 12, 2017 French Connection is set to record a ninth year of losses in its annual results this week. However, the group is expected to point out that it is only two-thirds of the way through its programme of closing loss-making stores, which is part of a wider turnaround plan. The company, which owns Toast, YMC and [...]
