Weather and inflation hits US February 15, 2011 A wave of data releases delivered bad news overall for the US economy yesterday. Homebuilder sentiment stagnated in February, a survey revealed. The index, which requires a score of 50 to reflect more builders viewing sales conditions as good than poor, stayed stuck on 16 for the fourth month in a row. Retail sales, meanwhile, [...]
British productivity on the rise February 15, 2011 Productivity in the UK rose by 40 per cent between 1991 and 2007, the fastest of all G7 countries, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday. However, the measure (GDP per worker) fell during the recent recession era (2007-2009). In terms of GDP per hour worked, the UK remains below Germany, France and the US, [...]
Steady price inflation for Spain February 15, 2011 Spanish consumer price inflation was level in January, sticking at December’s annualised rate of three per cent.
Morrisons in £70m deal to join web war February 15, 2011 WM MORRISON yesterday announced that it had finally taken the plunge into online retail, splashing out £70m on baby goods firm Kiddicare. The supermarket giant has so far resisted the move to the web while rivals like Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda see online sales as vital to their financial health. But the purchase of Kiddicare [...]
Danone warns of price rise February 15, 2011 FRENCH food group Danone is planning to raise some of its prices this year as well as making productivity gains to help combat an expected rise of up to nine per cent rise in raw material costs, it said yesterday. The world’s largest yoghurt maker with brands like Actimel and Activia, forecast the price of [...]
Family makes fortune look like child’s play February 15, 2011 THE family behind Kiddicare will share a £70m pot between them after their fast expanding business caught the eye of supermarket giant Wm Morrison. Family-run Kiddicare was founded in 1974 by Neville and Marilyn Wright, and is now run by their daughter, Elaine Weavers-Wright and her husband Scott. Kiddicare originally traded as Rainbow, a supplier [...]
Premier Foods cuts debt and aims to boost brands February 15, 2011 PREMIER Foods, Britain’s largest food producer, posted a 0.6 per cent rise in full-year trading profit and said its debt following two recent disposals would fall to under £1bn. The maker of Branston Pickle, Bisto gravy and Hovis bread, said yesterday that it made a trading profit of £311m in the year to 31 December. [...]
Domino’s drops its Britain’s Got Talent sponsorship as it reports a profit rise February 15, 2011 DOMINOS Pizza has seen its profit surge by 27 per cent – but sales started to slow in January. The company, which operates the British and Irish franchises of the global delivery brand, said sales growth at shops open more than a year slowed to 4.7 per cent in the first seven weeks of [...]
A&B given a lift as gold pulls in more customers February 15, 2011 PAWNBROKER Albemarle & Bond said yesterday that heavy advertising by websites that buy gold from consumers by post has boosted business. Revenues at its gold-buying arm were up 22 per cent in the six months to the end of December. The firm said that that was being boosted by online advertising in the industry. But [...]
Yell warns its annual profit will fall short February 15, 2011 SHARES in Yellow Pages publisher Yell tumbled yesterday after the directory business said its full-year earnings will miss market forecasts. The firm said its pre-tax profits fell to £38.6m in the nine months to the end of December, from £75.1m in the same period a year ago, as it blamed sliding revenues from its core [...]
