PZ Cussons prices up as costs soar June 9, 2011 Cleaning products maker PZ Cussons said it would have to raise its prices to combat soaring costs of its raw materials yesterday. The maker of Imperial Leather soap said trading over the past year was in line with its expectations, but it had to put “mitigation plans” in place to deal with rising costs, such [...]
Argos slump adds to Home Retail’s woes June 9, 2011 SHARES in Argos owner Home Retail Group fell 13.3 per cent yesterday after it said the catalogue retailer’s sales fell more than expected in the past quarter. Argos was hit hard by customers’ reluctance to buy expensive electronics and big-ticket household goods, causing its sales to slump 9.6 per cent to £817m in the past [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW BAD WAS THE PERFORMANCE OF ARGOS? June 9, 2011 TOM GADSBY | MATRIX GROUP These are pretty dire figures. We expected another tricky quarter for Argos, but the like-for-like sales fall is well below the expected range. While the decline in profits over the past two years is cyclical rather than structural, a clear upturn in consumer demand would be needed for the shares [...]
Halfords defies retail gloom to post profit rise June 9, 2011 HALFORDS shook off the gloom hanging over the UK retail sector yesterday to announce a 7.2 per cent rise in pre-tax profit in the past year. Customers bought more car parts and fitted them at Halfords stores as they cut back on expensive services or new vehicle purchases, chief executive David Wild told City A.M. [...]
Spread better IG eyes profit rise this year June 9, 2011 SPREAD betting firm IG Group has said it expects to post an increase in full-year profits this year. The British company said it anticipated a three per cent increase in its full-year pre-tax profits to £163m in the year to 31 May. IG, which reports detailed annual results next month, also said it expected trading [...]
Finnish mobile firm’s fightback will prove futile June 9, 2011 ANOTHER day, another blow for Nokia. Richard Green, the firm’s technology supremo, has quit after just one year in the job, and you can hardly blame him. Even chief executive Stephen Elop has described the company as a “burning platform”; Green obviously thought it was a sinking ship. Much has been made of Nokia’s slaughter [...]
Fresh blow as Nokia sees technology boss walk out June 9, 2011 NOKIA yesterday said its chief technology officer has taken a leave of absence and sources say he is unlikely to return after disagreements with management on strategy. Richard Green is said to be unhappy with decisions such as abandoning the MeeGo operating system it was developing with Intel in favour of going with Microsoft’s Windows [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT FACEBOOK’S FACIAL RECOGNITION TOOL? June 9, 2011 GILLIAN MCCOMBES | ATRIUM INSURANCE “It’s definitely an invasion of privacy and I think Facebook is being very sneaky by telling us that we have the option to change the settings. I’d rather have the option of deciding if I want to have the feature on my account. This is going to push a lot [...]
Facebook will hand info to EU June 9, 2011 FACEBOOK has agreed to hand over information about its use of facial recognition software to European regulators after privacy campaigners complained. The software, which can be turned off in Facebook’s settings, invites users to automatically tag their friends on photographs by scanning their faces. Facebook has stressed that the automated photo-tagging suggestions are only made when [...]
Network Rail grows profits by 11pc but number of late trains creeps up June 9, 2011 PROFITS at Network Rail jumped almost 11 per cent last year, although its performance dipped. Pre-tax profits at the firm that maintains Britain’s rail network jumped 10.8 per cent to £438m in the year ending 31 March. However, the number of trains running on time fell from 91.5 per cent to 90.9 per cent, which [...]
