Whitbread in dividend hike as profits lift October 18, 2011 WHITBREAD yesterday reported forecast busting first-half pre-tax profits and ramped up its interim dividend. The performance of its Premier Inn and Costa Coffee chains fuelled the rise. Whitbread, which also operates the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre pub restaurant chains, said underlying pre-tax profits rose 15.2 per cent to £174.9m in the six months to 1 [...]
Louis Vuitton owner bullish as sales surge October 18, 2011 LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, posted forecast-beating third-quarter sales growth yesterday and said it was confident for the rest of 2011, in the latest sign of wealthy shoppers’ resilient appetite for high-end goods. The Louis Vuitton maker posted a 15 per cent sales gain on a like-for-like basis, following strong results from Burberry [...]
Hilco buys Irish company A-wear from Alchemy October 18, 2011 IRISH fashion retailer A-wear has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by restructuring specialist Hilco Ireland. A-wear has 39 stores throughout Ireland and three in the UK as well as an online and wholesale businesses. Hilco said that its Irish arm has “provided extended working capital facilities to A-wear to facilitate the business’ financial needs”. [...]
Matalan warns of tough times ahead October 18, 2011 RETAILER Matalan said yesterday it remained cautious on its outlook after reported a 63 per cent fall in earnings for the second quarter. Ebitda – Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation – plunged to £13.6m in the 13 weeks to 17 August. Matalan blamed the tough climate, promotional activity and higher input costs. Total revenue dropped [...]
Danone upbeat amid talk of water disposal October 18, 2011 FRENCH food group Danone gave a confident outlook for 2012 yesterday and said its water business was “still strategic”, playing down a report it was in talks on a disposal. The world’s largest yoghurt maker, whose brands include Actimel and Activia, said it was positive for next year on the back of robust growth in [...]
BlackBerry suffers more than its parent brand October 18, 2011 ONE benefit of daily trackers such as YouGov’s BrandIndex is that you can immediately measure the impact of a crisis – comparing where the brand was prior to a problem, to perception within 24 hours, and then its status during the recovery period and beyond. Last week millions of BlackBerry users were unable to use [...]
SocialGo soars on product launch October 18, 2011 SocialGo, the developer and provider of software that allows groups to build their own online social networks, yesterday released its new social networking software product. The launch of SocialGO Version 2 sent shares on the rise, to close up by almost 20 per cent. The new product allows customers to build entire websites and can [...]
BBX operating system unveiled October 18, 2011 Research In Motion will introduce souped-up operating software for its BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook tablet designed to make both more formidable competitors to Apple and Google devices. At a developers conference in San Francisco, the Canadian company said yesterday it would install its new BBX platform in next-generation devices but provided no timetable.
£250,000 for a plan to exit the Eurozone October 18, 2011 ECONOMISTS have been challenged to create a plan for the orderly exit of countries from the Eurozone, with a prize sponsored by Next chief executive Lord Wolfson, the peer announced today. “There is a very real possibility of a Eurozone collapse, and a disorderly rout represents the worst possible option which would put at risk [...]
Daimler maintains outlook October 18, 2011 Daimler said yesterday it would keep its 2011 outlook, pouring cold water on market talk it may have to cut its guidance. “We don’t have the intention to lower our outlook,” a Daimler spokesman said. Daimler also said it had dismissed Ernst Lieb, the head of Mercedes-Benz USA, with immediate effect and gave no reasons [...]
