Hall named as Yo Sushi chief May 6, 2014 YO SUSHI appointed former Mitchells and Butlers director Vanessa Hall as chief executive yesterday after revealing a 15 per cent rise in full-year earnings to £9.2m. Hall joined the Japanese chain in September as chief operating officer and will replace Robin Rowland, who will take over as executive chairman after 14 years at the helm. [...]
Tesco to launch premium Hudl phone by Xmas May 6, 2014 TESCO yesterday announced that it would sell its own smartphone this year, following in the footsteps of its Hudl tablet last year. Tesco’s chief executive Philip Clarke, speaking on BBC Radio 5 yesterday morning, revealed the grocer’s plan to release a premium Hudl smartphone by Christmas. Clarke said the Hudl smartphone would be a high-end [...]
Apple’s new retail chief Angela Ahrendts in $68m signing bonus May 6, 2014 BURBERRY’S former chief executive Angela Ahrendts started her new role as the head of retail at Apple yesterday, receiving a share award from the American tech giant worth $68m (£40m). Ahrendts’ award of 113,334 restricted shares coincided with Apple’s share price pushing past $600 yesterday morning for the first time since October 2012. However, when [...]
Wet weather aids Just Eat May 6, 2014 JUST Eat announced yesterday that takeaway orders leapt 51 per cent during the first quarter of 2014 boosted by more people using its new iPad app because of wet weather in the UK and northern Europe. “During a period of unusually wet winter weather in several of our key markets, our consumers ordered more takeaway [...]
JP Morgan gets Poundland gig May 6, 2014 JP MORGAN pulled further ahead in the corporate broking league tables yesterday as Poundland appointed the investment bank. It means JP Morgan now has 220 broking clients, including 34 of the FTSE 100 and 92 of the FTSE 250. Poundland is a FTSE 250-sized firm, but with its recent listing has not yet been added to the index [...]
Brand Index: Cadbury gives Pfizer and Astrazeneca taste of the future May 6, 2014 NEWS that American pharma giant Pfizer is pursuing the British-Swedish drugs firm Astrazeneca has set the business world alight. While the business cases of such deals can be straightforward, how consumers react to brands is not. To see how foreign takeovers can play out among the public, I have used YouGov’s BrandIndex tool to look [...]
Q and A: MPs to grill Astrazeneca & Pfizer May 6, 2014 Q A lot seemed to happen in parliament yesterday, didn’t it? A Yes it did, two big things to note: business secretary Vince Cable responded to questions from other MPs in an especially convened emergency debate, and two select committees said they wanted to call the bosses of both companies to explain the deal. Q [...]
Big hurrah for the Shangri-Shard May 6, 2014 IF ANYONE was going to get an invite to sleep in the Shangri La following its grand opening yesterday, you’d think it would be Boris Johnson, given his unwavering support of what he dubs the “intergalactic spear” (the Shard to you and I) – but it appears his invite was lost in the post. “I haven’t [...]
But some Londoners weren’t so pleased… May 6, 2014 NO SOONER had the dragons and indeed Boris left the Shard, a wholly different crowd descended upon it: London’s taxi drivers, who staged a disruptive protest over TfL’s failure to give them a taxi rank outside the Shard’s revolving doors. The drivers drove in circles around the area, causing traffic chaos. “They’ve given us a rank 250 [...]
Glencore boosts copper output in first quarter May 6, 2014 COMMODITIES miner and trader Glencore Xstrata yesterday posted a 24 per cent rise in first-quarter copper output, after expanding its operations at two mines. Among diversified miners, the FTSE 100-quoted firm has the biggest exposure to copper, which accounted for almost half of its earnings last year. It added that the performance of its marketing [...]
