OFT probes Amazon deal to buy rival July 5, 2011 THE Office of Fair Trading has launched an enquiry into Amazon’s acquisition of one of its biggest UK rivals The Book Depository. The watchdog will now decide whether the merger could be detrimental to competition. Amazon and The Book Depository make up two of the top three online retailers in the UK, with Play.com in [...]
Happy ending for online bookseller July 5, 2011 THE Book Depository founder Andrew Crawford says he is looking forward to working with Amazon – and he knows what he is talking about; he used to work there. The 40-year-old Irish entrepreneur was one of the key people behind Amazon’s push into the UK in the late 1990s. His first experience in book retailing [...]
Low & Bonar posts a 42 per cent profit rise July 5, 2011 FIBRE manufacturer Low & Bonar posted a 42 per cent jump in first-half pre-tax profit yesterday, as robust sales in Western Europe and higher selling prices offset rising raw material costs. The firm said it was upbeat about the following year. “With good trading momentum, selling prices increased and polymer prices beginning to stabilise, the [...]
Shop prices driven up by food inflation July 5, 2011 WORLD ECONOMY FOOD inflation in British shops rocketed to 5.7 per cent in June from 4.9 per cent in May, a survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) unveiled today. Food costs pushed overall shop price inflation to a 32-month high of 2.9 per cent in June – a dangerous signal ahead of the official [...]
Volkswagen protests could be a force for good July 5, 2011 Last Tuesday as I walked down Old Street I was surprised to see a line of Stormtroopers patrolling the streets. This was, of course, the Greenpeace guerrilla ad campaign entitled “Volkswagen, The Dark Side”, protesting against the car maker’s opposition to EU environmental laws. The street action was accompanied by a YouTube clip that got [...]
ONS claims public sector pay is 7.8pc above others July 5, 2011 GOVERNMENT employees were paid 7.8 per cent more than their private sector counterparts as of April 2010, official data revealed yesterday. The pay gap between the UK’s two biggest sectors climbed by 2.5 per cent in the final three years of Labour’s last parliamentary term, the figures show. In 2007, public sector workers were being [...]
Growth still steady for UK services July 5, 2011 GROWTH in the UK’s service sector held up better than expected in June, yet survey figures released yesterday suggest that GDP expansion will still only reach 0.3 per cent. Expansion in the UK’s biggest sector services rose slightly to 53.9 last month (from 53.8 in May) according to the latest purchasing managers’ index (PMI) from [...]
Heavy cuts and a higher pension age are needed to avoid public debt crisis July 5, 2011 GOVERNMENT debts will hit 90 per cent of GDP by 2050 unless the UK raises the retirement age to 70 and embarks on severe fiscal tightening, according to a hard-hitting report from PricewaterhouseCoopers released this morning. The welfare state faces a demographic time-bomb due to an ageing population and rising healthcare and elderly care costs. [...]
Finnish minister demands guarantees over bailouts July 5, 2011 FINLAND’s new finance minister said yesterday that the Nordic country will demand guarantees if it participates in any new euro area bailouts and that it wants private investors to bear more of the burden. “We want to limit Finland’s responsibilities. The new government has taken a tougher stance than the previous government regarding crisis countries’ [...]
Jacques Vert bucks gloomy fashion trend July 5, 2011 WOMEN’S fashion retailer Jacques Vert has defied the gloom on the UK high street by yesterday reporting a lift in sales and profit. The group, whose brands include Windsmoor and Planet, saw sales up 2.6 per cent to £118.4m, while pre-tax profit nudged up from £5.1m to £5.3m. The retailer cut its outlets in the [...]
