Branson gives it some welly April 27, 2015 SIR RICHARD Branson’s been busy of late – opening the first Virgin hotel earlier this month (in Chicago), repeating calls for Britain to remain in the EU, and even slamming Yahoo’s policy of limiting the extent to which its workers are allowed to work from home (he thinks it’s a good thing – and as [...]
LK Bennett revenues rise after winning over new fans in the US April 26, 2015 LK BENNETT saw sales jump 4.4 per cent last year despite underlying earnings remaining flat as it invested in its online offer and opened more stores overseas. The upmarket fashion brand reported sales of £95.3m for the year to 2 August, boosted by new store openings in Boston and Chicago as well as concessions in [...]
More shoppers are supporting living wages April 26, 2015 Public sentiment toward the living wage campaign – the campaign to get employers to pay workers a calculated wage higher than the minimum wage – is on the climb. A survey published today by financial services firm KPMG found that seven out of 10 UK adults would consciously shop in favour of a retail chain [...]
No clocking off in Apple Watch battle: Why Swiss watchmaker H. Moser & Cie boss Edouard Meylan is bullish about the future April 26, 2015 Even without the usual queues of devoted fans outside its stores, Apple created enough hype around its long-awaited watch that when it went on sale earlier this month, the limited first run sold out within hours. The £12,000 Watch Edition – made with gold – was one of the first of its 38 style options to [...]
Consumer group lists demands for energy competition probe April 26, 2015 CONSUMER rights group Which has piled more pressure on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) by listing the criteria it will judge the CMA probe into household energy prices. The authority will publish the results of its closely watched study into the Big Six energy providers next month. Which says it wants remedies offered by [...]
ETF sector toasts 15 years since its London launch April 26, 2015 THE FIRST ever UK exchange traded fund (ETFs) launched 15 years ago today, a milestone moment for an industry which can boast a near 5,000 per cent revenue rise in 10 years. London’s ETF market generated turnover of £185.4bn last year, up from £3.9bn in 2004, according to figures from the London Stock Exchange. “The [...]
Adobe considering £200m bid for UK special effects firm The Foundry April 26, 2015 US tech giant Adobe is set to make a £200m bid for UK special effects firm The Foundry, it emerged yesterday. The British firm, which boasts 20,000 clients including Pixar, Sony and Warner Bros, was put up for sale last year by private equity firm Carlyle. Its cutting edge effects programme, Nuke, has been used [...]
CafePod seeks new funding as it takes on $15bn global market April 26, 2015 London based start-up CafePod is seeking to raise £1.5m to take its coffee brand global, the company has announced. The UK company, which manufactures coffee capsules, was set up by two former City workers, Peter Grainger and Brent Hadfield in 2012 and has since seen its value rocket by 700 per cent. CafePod managed to [...]
FTSE 100 firms are languishing in digital race April 26, 2015 OVER half of FTSE 100 companies are failing to adapt to the digital age according to creative consultancy Radley Yeldar, with SABMiller the most “digitally mature” firm listed on the index. In a study looking at corporate websites, social media platforms, mobile web, mobile apps and intranets for each of the FTSE 100 companies, Radley [...]
Chinese spending more abroad April 26, 2015 A RAPIDLY rising number of Chinese people are travelling abroad, despite a sharp slowdown in the country’s economic growth. Chinese travellers made 117m trips in 2014, up 20 per cent on 2013, according to the China Confidential outbound tourism report released today. China’s outbound tourism spending is likely to grow to an unprecedented 3.3 trillion [...]
