Carpetright facing a tough year ahead August 4, 2010 CARPETRIGHT, Britain’s biggest floor coverings retailer, posted a drop in first-quarter underlying sales yesterday and said it was cautious about the outlook for consumer spending for the rest of its financial year. The firm, which runs over 700 stores, said sales at British and Irish stores open at least a year fell 3.4 per cent [...]
SWATCH CLOCKS UP RECORD RESULT August 4, 2010 SWATCH, the world’s largest watchmaker, yesterday reported a 54 per cent increase in profits for the first six months of the year. Net profit rose to SwFr465m (£280m) on record gross sales of SwFr3.03bn. The group, best known for its colourful plastic Swatch watches but also owns higher-end brands such as Breguet, Blancpain and Omega, [...]
Premier Foods sees profit dip with extra pension cost August 4, 2010 BRITAIN’S largest food producer Premier Foods yesterday posted a lower profit on additional pension and restructuring costs, but said it was on track to generate its targeted cash flow for 2010, sending its shares up nine per cent. The FTSE-250 group, which had been laden by heavy debts mostly due to some of its acquisitions, [...]
World cup and sunshine give Marston’s a lift August 4, 2010 SUNSHINE and the World Cup weather boosted beer sales for brewer Marston’s. The company said yesterday it remained on track to meet its expectations for the year. Sales at its managed pubs open for more than a year were up 1.7 per cent on the prior year in the 43 weeks to 31 July, including [...]
Halifax reports a rise in UK house prices in July August 4, 2010 FEARS of a double-dip in the UK housing market dissipated somewhat yesterday after mortgage lender Halifax reported that house prices rose by 0.6 per cent in July. Last month’s rise entirely offset the June drop in prices and the average price of a UK house now stands at £167,425. This is slightly below where they [...]
…but UK services growth continues to slow down August 4, 2010 GROWTH in Britain’s services sector slowed sharply last month, confirming analysts’ forecasts that economic activity will have cooled during the third quarter of the year. The leading Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 53.1 from 54.4 in June, a slightly greater drop than economists had expected and the fourth fall in five months. The [...]
US services see small bounce… August 4, 2010 A SMALL bounce in the US ISM non-manufacturing index to 54.3 in July from 53.8 in June indicated that the world’s largest economy is not spiralling into the abyss after all. Encouragingly, the gain was driven by a rebound in new orders to 56.7 from 54.4. Employment also grew last month after a slight cut [...]
Shire boosts outlook after revenue soars August 4, 2010 SHIRE, the acquisitive drugmaker buying Belgium’s Movetis, beat second-quarter expectations as its rare disease franchise capitalised on production woes at US rival Genzyme. The strong performance prompted the UK company to increase its full-year forecast and chief executive Angus Russell said he now expected underlying 2010 earnings to grow 15 percent from 2009. Shire’s drugs [...]
British Airways sees its July passenger traffic fall August 4, 2010 British Airways (BA) carried 2.6 per cent fewer passengers in July compared with the year before and said it expected summer traffic volumes to be lower than last year. BA carried 3.19m passengers last month, down from the 3.21m in July 2009, while its load factor — a measure of how well it fills its [...]
Arbuthnot isoptimistic as profits rise August 4, 2010 ARBUTHNOT Banking Group saw its profits more than triple over the first half of the year as all of its divisions moved back into the black amid improving economic conditions. Pre-tax profit at the group rose to £2.3m, up from £0.7m in the first six months of 2009. The result came despite a weakening at [...]
