General Election 2015: Labour border clash over cuts in manifesto April 13, 2015 The Labour party sought to defend its economic credibility yesterday, even as polling showed them facing a wipeout in their Scottish heartland in the face of anti-cuts campaigning. A poll conducted by TNS showed the majority of Scots backing the Scottish National Party (SNP). Support for Nicola Sturgeon’s party has doubled over the last [...]
Travelodge profits soar amid talk of a potential £1bn float April 13, 2015 TRAVELODGE reported a surge in full-year profits yesterday, raising prospects that a £1bn flotation could be on the cards. The budget hotel chain underwent a painful debt restructuring in 2012 that handed control to its US lenders – Avenue Capital, GoldenTree Asset Management and Goldman Sachs. Under leisure industry veteran Peter Gowers, who was brought [...]
Greece denies election and default claims April 13, 2015 GREECE was forced to deny two damaging reports yesterday that it is preparing for a debt default and that it could be facing early elections. On the issue of the country’s debt, the Financial Times reported that Athens was planning to withhold loan tranches worth a total of €2.5bn (£1.8bn) due to be paid to [...]
Early Easter helps lift retail sales out of the doldrums in March April 13, 2015 A PICK-UP in the grocery market together with the earlier timing of Easter this year helped boost retail sales in March. Data out today from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG show retail sales increased by 3.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis in March compared with the same month last year when they fell [...]
Morrisons’ group trading director Casper Meijer joins mass exodus April 13, 2015 Morrisons’ trading director Casper Meijer has become the latest high profile executive to leave the troubled retailer as part of an ongoing shake-up under new chief executive David Potts. The former Tesco director has sacked over half of Morrisons senior management team since taking over in March as he tries to turn around the troubled [...]
Danish competition guru Margrethe Vestager set to go into battle with Google April 13, 2015 EU official Margrethe Vestager is tipped to lay charges against the internet giant as soon as tomorrow. As a company, Google’s name is so synonymous with searching that it is frequently used as a verb. In other areas the technology giant may not always have been so well-known. But that, say its detractors, has never [...]
Halfords chief finance officer to join easyJet April 13, 2015 THE FINANCE chief of Halfords is getting off his bike at the retailer and hopping on a plane instead, after agreeing to take up the same role at easyJet, the companies said yesterday. Andrew Findlay will join the budget airline at the end of October, replacing Chris Kennedy who announced that he was leaving for [...]
LVMH posts strong start to year despite some wine woes in China April 13, 2015 FRENCH luxury goods group LVMH posted a three per cent rise in like-for-like first-quarter sales yesterday, boosted by the weak euro against the dollar and a strong performance from its key brand Louis Vuitton. Total sales in the first three months of the year increased by 16 per cent on a reported basis to €8.3bn [...]
Brokerage ICAP poaches Hiscox’s long-serving senior executive April 13, 2015 ICAP hired Stuart Bridges from insurance firm Hiscox yesterday, appointing him as the brokerage’s new group finance director. Bridges has been Hiscox’s chief finance officer since 1999 and is a long-serving board member and executive director. “Stuart brings valuable experience and an impressive track record in the global financial services industry and I am delighted [...]
Soaring number of travellers at UK’s big airports April 13, 2015 THE DEBATE over airport expansion took off again yesterday, with new passenger data showing both Heathrow and Gatwick enjoyed a record-breaking March. Hub airport Heathrow saw 5.95m passengers travelling through it last month, up 3.4 per cent on March 2014, and helped by earlier Easter holidays. Gatwick had 2.96m passengers pass through its doors during [...]
