BMW pumps £250m into Mini July 9, 2012 BMW yesterday announced that it would pump £250m into Mini production in the UK. The money will be made available for Mini production at its factories in Oxford, Birmingham and Swindon. It comes on top of a previous £500m investment.
Branson enjoys a wild time on maiden flight July 9, 2012 DOES Virgin Atlantic’s promise to treat its passengers like rock stars extend to its own staff? It certainly looked that way on the carrier’s inaugural flight to Cancun, where a plane-load of employees and hangers-on managed to drink the onboard bar dry before a beach party that could not be stopped even by hurricane-strength winds [...]
Pimlico Plumbers employees reveal all July 9, 2012 GRADUALLY the taboos are being broken. First, an unemotional tennis player breaks down in tears after losing the Wimbledon final. Next the workforce at Pimlico Plumbers takes part in a challenge where they reveal their pay to each other for the sake of an experiment and a television programme entitled Show Me Your Money to [...]
Michael Page feels pain from banking sector July 9, 2012 TOUGH financial job market conditions have continued to impact growth at white-collar recruiter Michael Page, which reported a slide in quarterly profits yesterday. The British group, which places people in accounting, financial and legal jobs across 35 countries, is battling a slowdown in markets as clients hold off on hiring or moving jobs in light [...]
Why qualified financiers are in terrific demand July 9, 2012 Recently it occurred to me that if I were to come back in another life I might train to be a Qualified Executive. I had never heard the term before the last few days but people in the City have been telling me that Qualified Executives (or QEs as they are known within the square [...]
ANALYST VIEWS | WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL REACTION TO MICHAEL PAGE’S TRADING UPDATE? July 9, 2012 HENRY CARVER PEEL HUNT The results were slightly below expectations, but management expects profits for 2012 to be “broadly in line”…But the outlook remains highly uncertain, and we note that key regions such as France and Brazil have got tougher. We are leaving 2012 forecasts unchanged, but downgrade 2013 by 25 per cent. PAUL JONES [...]
OECD: Slowdown is going global July 9, 2012 MAJOR economies across the globe are set to slow down further over the next six months, according to an influential leading index published yesterday, raising fears of a prolonged recession in the UK and Eurozone. The downturn is focused on the Eurozone, according to the figures from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), [...]
Rain washes away June’s retail gains July 9, 2012 THE DIAMOND Jubilee and warm spell at the start of June gave retailers a great start to the month, according to industry data out today – but that rapidly disappeared as bad weather took over. Total retail sales were up 3.5 per cent compared with June 2011, while like-for-like sales – those covering the same [...]
Surveyors: housing woe is here to stay July 9, 2012 THE HOUSING market remained depressed in June, as demand stayed low and supply shrunk, according to data published yesterday by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). House prices slumped further, with 22 per cent more respondents reporting drops than upturn. Though London was an exception, prices in the capital still grew at a slower [...]
Estimates of output gap getting worse July 9, 2012 ECONOMIC estimates used to determine monetary policy have become less accurate, a working paper released by the Bank of England revealed yesterday. Absolute output gap revisions have gone up, even as revisions due to delayed inclusion of previously available data have declined. The output gap is the difference between actual GDP and potential GDP at [...]
