JD Sports sees small sales rise January 12, 2012 JD Sports Fashion said yesterday its acquisition of loss-making Blacks Leisure’s assets would lead to a small reduction in earnings but it expected its full year results to be within the current range of forecasts. The clothing and footwear firm said sales at shops in Britain and Ireland open more than a year increased by [...]
Thorntons hit by discounting January 12, 2012 Chocolatier Thorntons said sales over the Christmas period had been below its expectations and its profitability would be hit by heavy discounting, in a retail environment it called “extremely tough”. Derbyshire-based Thorntons, which operates around 600 stores across the UK and employs more than 4,000 staff, said sales in its own stores declined in the [...]
Bump in the road at Halfords January 12, 2012 Bicycle and car parts retailer Halfords reported a drop in sales in the run-up to Christmas, as mild weather made Britons even less inclined to spend money on maintaining vehicles. Halfords said sales at stores open more than a year in Britain and Ireland fell by 4.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to 30 [...]
Theo Fennell loses its sparkle January 12, 2012 Celebrity jeweller Theo Fennell said yesterday it was expecting to report a loss for the year to the end of March 2012, after reporting weak trading over Christmas. Sales in the five weeks over the festive period were 11 per cent below 2010.
New Look gets Christmas cheer January 12, 2012 New Look, the value fashion retailer owned by private equity groups Apax and Permira, has reported a 3.6 per cent jump in sales over the festive period despite “challenging” trading conditions. The retailer said multi-channel shopping initiatives such as the launch of its “click and collect” service had helped boost its sales in the five [...]
Christmas lift strengthens Ocado shares January 12, 2012 OCADO’s shares enjoyed a 33 per cent lift yesterday after the online grocer said the absence of 2010’s snow and increased delivery slots helped boost sales by 23.8 per cent in the week before Christmas. The company, founded by three former Goldman Sachs bankers in 2000, reported gross sales of £59m in the four weeks [...]
A momentary triumph for Tim’s vans January 12, 2012 SO a glimmer of light for Ocado. We’ve long taken a sceptical view on the delivery firm, but its festive trading figures might just win it some breathing space, among all the other doom and gloom. Ocado — run by ex-Goldman banker Tim Steiner — lucked out by making two savvy decisions this winter. First, it [...]
Draghi: ECB halted bank credit crunch January 12, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank has mitigated a major credit crunch by pumping money into banks, according to its president Mario Draghi. Draghi said that the crunch would have been “much, much more serious” without ECB action last month to flood banks with €489bn in loans. Traders suspect that the loans contributed to demand at a [...]
Hints of Kazakh interest give a boost to UniCredit January 12, 2012 SHARES in UniCredit, the Italian bank in the throes of a massive rights issue, were boosted yesterday by suggestions that a Kazakhstan wealth fund had amassed a five per cent stake. Il Giornale newspaper said Samruk Kazyna had built up the disclosable holding but yesterday the fund said the report was inaccurate, without saying whether [...]
Hedgies ready for stand off on Greek debt pile January 12, 2012 HEDGE funds are positioning to profit from a plan to slash Greece’s towering debt pile as Athens enters final talks that could sway the country’s membership of the euro. York Capital, the $14bn fund part-owned by Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse, New York-listed Och Ziff , and $10bn-strong Marathon Asset Management are among those who [...]
