Birds Eye chief exec rejects top job offer from struggling Premier Foods July 4, 2011 THE chief executive of the frozen food producer Birds Eye Iglo, Martin Glenn (pictured), has rejected a swoop to make him chief executive at Premier Foods. Premier, the owner of the Hovis and Mr Kipling brands, is using headhunters to find a replacement for Robert Schofield, who is leaving the company. Glenn has run Birds [...]
Next offloads its Ventura arm to Capita for £65m July 4, 2011 NEXT has sold its third party customer contact arm in a deal worth £65m. The retailer offloaded Ventura to the outsourcer Capita. Next said it would use the proceeds of the sale to buy back and cancel its own shares. Earlier this year, Next outlined the potential for £160m of share buybacks in the current [...]
FOREVER 21 TO OPEN AT LAKESIDE July 4, 2011 US FASHION giant Forever 21 has announced it will open a new flagship store at Capital Shopping Centres’ Lakeside, in Essex. Forever 21 will open for Christmas 2013 after a revamp at Lakeside, which will also see new flagship stores for BHS and TopShop/TopMan. A total of 35,000 sq ft of new space will be [...]
London defies slow UK real estate market July 4, 2011 GROWING demand for office space and a booming London market are offering some hope for the UK’s ailing commercial property market, a new survey revealed today. And while the residential property sector continues to slump across the UK, house prices at the top end of the London market are expected to rise by nine per [...]
UK families need 20pc more cash July 4, 2011 FAMILIES with children need to earn up to 20 per cent more than last year just to hit an “acceptable standard of living”, the Rowntree Foundation will argue today. A working couple with two children need to earn £36,800 per annum simply to cover the family’s basic costs, a report by the foundation has found. [...]
Construction industry still growing yet one in five firms are cutting jobs July 4, 2011 THE construction industry continued to grow last month, data released yesterday confirmed. The sector printed 53.6 in a purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey, down only slightly from the 54 recorded in May. All scores above 50 indicate economic growth. “June data rounds off a further solid quarter of growth, albeit down on the first quarter,” [...]
RONALD REAGAN STATUE UNVEILED IN LONDON July 4, 2011 A bronze statue of the late Ronald Reagan was unveiled at the American embassy in Mayfair yesterday to mark the US president’s 100th birthday. Foreign secretary William Hague and Condoleeza Rice, US secretary of state under George W Bush’s administration, both spoke at the unveiling ceremony yesterday morning.
Sole traders stunted by red tape July 4, 2011 One in three sole traders looking to expand their business would be encouraged to take on staff if they were exempt from employment laws, a survey from the British Chambers of Commerce has found. Half of the surveyed traders said that a reduced rate of National Insurance Contributions (NIC) would incentivise them to recruit their [...]
Eurozone producer prices slip July 4, 2011 Producer prices in the Eurozone slipped more than expected in May, declining by 0.2 per cent, after a 0.9 per cent jump the previous month. However, underlying data suggest that price pressures remain intense, according to Barclays Capital: “The annual inflation rate for the core (excluding food and energy) consumer goods PPI reached 1.3 per [...]
Investor morale boost for Euro July 4, 2011 Investor sentiment across the Eurozone has taken a surprising upturn this month. The German-based Sentix investor confidence index climbed to 5.3 months in its July reading, up from 3.5 in June. Relaxed commodity prices, and particularly the sharp downward turn in the price of oil, helped ease investor concerns. The recent support package for Greece [...]
