Very: Shoppers splurge on air friers and games consoles, but group sales slide January 13, 2023 Sales at online retailer Very rose 2.2 per cent year-on-year during the busy festive season. Toys, gifts and beauty and home departments were the main beneficiaries of the spending splurge, with sales up 17.7 per cent and 10.2 per cent respectively. Games consoles and Ninja air fryers were the bestselling items during the seven weeks [...]
Average London rents near £1,000 and are unlikely to fall in 2023 – SpareRoom January 12, 2023 UK rent prices soared to their highest peak ever in the final quarter of 2022, inching closer to the £1000 mark, according to new data published today. Flatshare site SpareRoom reported that London rents for the last quarter of 2022 were up 22 per cent on the same period the previous year, taking the average [...]
Premier Inn-owner Whitbread shares rise after robust third quarter January 12, 2023 Premier Inn owner Whitbread saw sales grow 22.9 per cent in the third quarter as Brits turn to budget accommodation options amid looming recession and cost-of-living concerns. The hotel operator reported an increase in demand for sales with accommodation 37 per cent above pre-pandemic levels in the UK and 770 per cent in Germany. Total [...]
UK-Japan relations ‘stronger than ever’ as Sunak pens new post-Brexit defence deal at Tower of London January 11, 2023 The UK and Japan today signed a new defence agreement with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying that relations between the two nations are “stronger than ever.” Sunak signed the deal alongside Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Tower of London this evening. The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) allows both nations to deploy military forces in [...]
LVMH boss promotes daughter Delphine Arnault to top position at Dior January 11, 2023 LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault has appointed his daughter Delphine Arnault as CEO of Christian Dior in a management shake-up. She succeeds Pietro Beccari, 55, who has headed Dior for nearly 12 years but has also been promoted. He is set to take over as CEO of Louis Vuitton from Michael Burke, who will [...]
Boohoo: Tears as online retailer prepares major jobs cull at London Soho office January 11, 2023 Online fast-fashion retailer Boohoo is preparing to slash over 100 jobs in its London Soho office as it continues to integrate a recent spate of big brand acquisitions. The majority of roles at risk of being cut are believed to be among Boohoo’s e-commerce, buying and design teams,; although the exact number of redundancies is [...]
Apple and Samsung smartphone screen supplier expands Vietnamese production capacity January 11, 2023 Chinese technology group BOE, which supplies both Apple and Samsung, is preparing to build two new factories in Vietnam. The smart display company plans to invest up to £330m ($400m) in its expansion, according to Reuters. It wants to rent up to 100 hectares of land in the northern region, 80 per cent of which will [...]
Going green a load of rubbish? Well, it is for Bywaters November 22, 2022 In an industrial estate in Tower Hamlets mountain upon mountain of recyclable waste sits waiting to be sorted and baled. A copy of ‘Bioinformatics for Dummies’ is discarded on a conveyor belt amidst plastic bags, cardboard and other random items thrown out in recent days. The smell, whilst unpleasant, is better than you might expect. [...]
UK net zero ambition needs “huge engagement” from SMEs October 6, 2022 Small businesses are keen to play their part in the UK’s journey to reach net zero by 2050 but decarbonising is complicated and expensive. It will be impossible to reach the UK’s net zero by 2050 goal without “huge engagement” from the UK’s 5.7 million Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), says Chris Hocknell, director of Eight Versa, [...]
Sweden suspect “gross sabotage” of Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea October 4, 2022 Sweden closed the area around the ruptured Nord Stream pipelines yesterday as their prosecution authority called it a “crime scene” amid speculations of foul play. “Suspected gross sabotage” led Swedish prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist and the coast guard to ban divers and marine vessels, including underwater vehicles, from being within 5.8 miles of the leaks. On [...]
