Skills shortage poses threat to UK businesses January 4, 2015 A shortage of skills in the UK could blight firms’ 2015 expansion plans, new survey data suggests. Of 500 firms surveyed, 39 per cent said a lack of skilled workers would have negative impact on their business, according to figures released today by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). A potential [...]
Tesco braces for era of pain as Dave Lewis restructures group January 4, 2015 Troubled retail giant Tesco is preparing to give investors a poor set of financial results this Thursday – which is likely to include losses in its core supermarket operations. New boss Dave Lewis has warned shareholders that he is willing to take short-term pain for long-term gain. He is not going to reveal any comprehensive [...]
Wasabi still packs a punch despite profit slide January 4, 2015 Food chain Wasabi saw its pre-tax profit fall from £2.84m to £480,557 in the 16-month period to 31 December 2013, following the sushi outlet’s expansion in London and New York. Turnover almost doubled last year, with sales up by 72 per cent over the same period, owing to the increasing popularity of healthier lunch options [...]
General Election 2015 advertising: The campaign posters that flatter to deceive January 4, 2015 The parties’ main campaigns kick off today, but electoral advertising is already in full swing. In the first skirmishes of the upcoming general election campaign, two old-fashioned outdoor posters have been causing controversy. Both the Labour Party and the Conservatives unveiled posters over the weekend that have been subject to much nitpicking [...]
Chinese tycoon Guo Guangchang wins battle to buy Club Med January 4, 2015 Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang is set to buy French holiday resorts firm Club Med in a deal worth over €900m (£704m) after winning a long-running bidding war against Italian rival Andrea Bonomi, it was revealed yesterday. Billionaire Bonomi conceded defeat late on Friday. Guangchang’s conglomerate Fosun International had raised its bid for the holiday company [...]
Bob Diamond ditches Barclays Wealth as his charity’s bankers January 4, 2015 Former Barclays boss Bob Diamond has hired State Street as the banker for his charitable foundation, its annual report shows. The Diamond Family Foundation used to use Barclays Wealth as its bankers, alongside PwC as its auditors. But its latest financial report shows that Diamond’s charitable unit picked US bank State Street instead for the [...]
MoD’s warship promises face public scrutiny January 4, 2015 THE MINISTRY of Defence (MoD) yesterday attempted to quash reports that it has missed the deadline to order the building of 13 warships. Defence secretary Michael Fallon was adamant as recently as November last year that the Type 26 Global Combat frigates would be built by BAE Systems on the Clyde. Fallon was forced to [...]
Confidence falls amid European export worries January 4, 2015 BUSINESS confidence has fallen since the summer, with demand for UK exports expected to weaken. Lloyds Bank’s headline confidence index has dipped to 43 from 53 in July, according to figures released today. This was mostly driven by a fall in firms’ expectations of orders and profits over the next six months. Lloyds Bank notes [...]
UK finance chiefs rate general election as their biggest risk January 4, 2015 Growing political and economic uncertainty is becoming a problem for the UK’s largest companies, survey data released today shows. When asked to rate the level of risk posed between 0 and 100, chief financial officers (CFOs) attached a 63 rating to May’s General Election and 56 to economic weakness in Europe and the possibility of [...]
Shelter warns of struggle to pay house bills January 4, 2015 OVER 3m people could be at risk of missing mortgage or rent payments this month, housing and homelessness campaign group Shelter will say today. According to a survey commissioned by Shelter and undertaken by YouGov, 11 per cent of people who pay rent or have a mortgage are worried about covering their housing costs in [...]
