Housing boom cements double digit revenue rise at Topps Tiles May 20, 2014 TOPPS Tiles yesterday posted a double-digit rise in sales, helped by a buoyant housing market pushing more homeowners into upgrading their floors. The firm said revenues rose 11.8 per cent to £97.7m in the half-year to 29 March, claiming this growth was “ahead of the tile market”. Pre-tax profits rose 70 per cent to £8m, [...]
Cookery titles lead Bloomsbury to a year of sizzling book sales May 20, 2014 PUBLISHING house Bloomsbury said strong demand for its cookery, adult fiction and non-fiction books boosted revenues 11 per cent last year to £109.5m. Titles such as Tom Kerridge’s Proper Pub Food and Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season led to what chief executive Nigel Newton described as a “spectacular year”. Despite the sales boom, profits slipped [...]
Eurotunnel’s ferries are set to be banned from crossing the Channel May 20, 2014 EUROTUNNEL’S ferry service is heading for the rocks after the British competition watchdog said the firm controls too much of the cross-Channel travel market. The Competition and Markets Authority said it intends to uphold an earlier ruling that will force Eurotunnel to halt its MyFerryLink services within six months. Eurotunnel said the market has undergone [...]
Greencore splashes out on new factory to fuel growth in the US May 20, 2014 GREENCORE, the food group that supplies retailers with everything from sandwiches to Yorkshire puddings, announced plans to step up its expansion in the US as it reported an eight per cent rise in half-year revenues yesterday. The London-listed group, whose biggest clients in the US include Starbucks and 7-Eleven, said it will spend £20m on [...]
Staples forecasts fall in takings May 20, 2014 Staples yesterday forecast a fall in sales in the current quarter as customers shift to e-retailers, mass merchants and drugstores to buy their office supplies. Shares of the largest US office supply retailer fell as much as 11 per cent in morning trading, after the company reported its fifth straight fall in quarterly sales. First-quarter [...]
Home Depot reports robust sales May 20, 2014 Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement chain, said yesterday its sales were “robust” in May and that it expected to realise in the current quarter most of the sales lost in the first three months due to severe winter weather in the US. Home Depot’s sales rose 2.9 per cent to $19.7bn (£11.7bn) in [...]
GM recalls another 2.4m cars May 20, 2014 General Motors said yesterday it is recalling another 2.42m vehicles in the United States, raising the number of vehicles it has recalled so far this year to more than 15m. The biggest car firm in the US also said it is doubling the charge it expects to take in the second quarter to about $400m [...]
Camelot hits the jackpot with its lottery price rise May 20, 2014 NATIONAL Lottery operator Camelot posted the second-highest annual ticket sales in its history yesterday, with revenues of £6.73bn for the year to 31 March. The sales weren’t enough to beat last year’s record of £6.98bn, but the firm said its multi-million pound marketing campaign to launch its more expensive £2 tickets had turned around the [...]
Reed Elsevier buys Wunelli to beef up its telematics business May 20, 2014 INFORMATION services group Reed Elsevier has bought UK-based Wunelli, a telematics provider, in a deal thought to be worth around £25m. Telematics, the practice of sending data about drivers to an insurance company to calculate an accurate personal premium, is growing in popularity in the UK. Reed acquired the company in a bid to beef [...]
Oligarch faces world’s largest divorce payout May 20, 2014 A JUDGE in Switzerland has ordered Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev to pay his ex-wife SFr4bn (£2.7bn) following a six-year battle, making it the largest divorce settlement ever. The lawyer acting on behalf of Elena Rybolovleva, Marc Bonnant, said she is “satisfied” with the ruling. “Everything she asked for she was rightfully granted,” Bonnant told City AM. [...]
