London Sports Festival moves from 3×3 basketball success to pickleball at the City of London Corporation’s Guildhall Yard
Bank of England steps back from interest rate hike as inflation falls January 21, 2015 INTEREST rates are set to stay lower for longer, as senior policymakers at the Bank of England unanimously decided to keep rates on hold, the minutes of this month’s meeting showed yesterday. Slowing growth in the Eurozone combined with falling inflation in the UK is pushing a prospective rate hike further into the future. Previously, two members [...]
Halfords boss poached by Tesco: Matt Davies says he’s gutted to leave the firm January 21, 2015 Matt Davies, you can tell, is squirming in his seat at being asked about his new role at Tesco during a call for Halfords’ trading update. “I am genuinely gutted to be leaving Halfords,” Davies explains. “It was absolutely not in my script to be leaving. But when I was approached by Tesco and given [...]
Semetric and Musicmetric co-founder Gregory Mead: Meet the London physics graduate who built a $50m startup January 21, 2015 Imperial College London graduate Gregory Mead began work on the software that would eventually become a $50m (£33m) business while working on the university’s student newspaper in 2007. “We had about 20,000 readers, and I had 30 reviewers that would write about new music and go to gigs. I needed to find a way to [...]
Dixons bucks trend of Black Friday fallout January 21, 2015 DIXONS Carphone signalled yesterday it has increased its full-year profit forecasts after Black Friday and Boxing Day sales smashed expectations. Chief executive Sebastian James said the adoption of Black Friday, the US-sales bonanza on 28 November, meant the festive trading season now resembled a “two-humped Bactrian camel”. He joked that it has become so big [...]
Analyst Views: How did Dixons Carphone do well over Black Friday and Christmas? January 21, 2015 ALISTAIR DAVIES | INVESTEC Careful planning and tactical promotions have enabled Dixons Carphone to deliver a strong Christmas trading performance, with the business taking profitable market share through Black Friday….We continue to see scope for upgrades at Dixons Carphone through market outperformance and synergy benefits. DAVID JEARY | CANACCORD GENUITY The strength of trading performance [...]
FT publisher Pearson reports £720m in profit January 21, 2015 FINANCIAL Times owner Pearson announced yesterday that it expected to report 2014 results in line with its previous guidance, anticipating an adjusted operating profit of £720m. Pearson said it had faced tough market conditions last year as its North America and UK education businesses were hit by cyclical and policy-related pressures, and smaller school textbook [...]
UK house prices pull away from Eurozone’s with 11.7 per cent on the year January 21, 2015 British house prices pushed ahead of those in other major economies towards the end of last year, official figures showed yesterday. While cheap money combined with growth in pay and rising employment has conspired to spark a housing market recovery in some countries, other parts of the EU are still falling behind. Only nations like [...]
Branch sales fall at WH Smith but travel takes off January 21, 2015 BRITISH High Street icon WH Smith yesterday reported a fall in group and like-for-like sales in the 20 weeks to 17 January. However, it added that it was performing in line with its expectations. The FTSE 250-listed retailer said total group sales for the 20 weeks fell one per cent, with like-for-like sales declining two [...]
Pets at Home on track to meet forecasts with £182m revenue January 21, 2015 Shares in Pets at Home Group gained ground yesterday after the retailer said it remained on track to meet its expectations for the full year on the back of another strong trading update. The FTSE 250-listed retailer said revenue in the 12 weeks to 1 January grew 7.8 per cent to £182.2m, buoyed by merchandise [...]
Poundland hit by slowdown in new stores January 21, 2015 SHARES in Poundland lost some of their shine yesterday after the company blamed the timing of its expansion programme for the slowdown in third quarter sales. The discount chain, which floated in March last year, said its sales rose 10.2 per cent in the 13 weeks to 28 December, a slowdown on the 15 per [...]
