M&S, Greggs and Sainsbury’s shares slide on shaky outlook for UK economy January 9, 2025 Marks & Spencer (M&S), Greggs, Sainsbury’s and B&M shares have all slumped today after investors took fright at warnings of a slowdown in consumer spending over the next year. Aside from Sainbury’s, whose results will be announced on Friday morning, all the firms released solid earnings updates this morning, with M&S reporting an 8.7 per [...]
Tesco shares drop despite bumper Christmas trading January 9, 2025 Tesco shares dropped two per cent in early deals this morning despite the retailer reporting abumper festive trading period. Food sales rose by 4.7 per cent in the six weeks to January 4, with a “particularly strong contribution” from fresh food, the grocer said. That’s more than double the market average of 2.1 per cent. [...]
The Capitalist: WFH rows, Zuck’s new watch and the City’s Tesco habits revealed January 9, 2025 WFH causes a ruckus, Zuckerberg's eye-catching watch and the nation's favourite meal deal: catch up on the latest gossip in The Capitalist.
Financial M&A surges as banks and insurers hunt for scale January 8, 2025 A wave of banking and insurance tie-ups pushed the volume of UK financial services dealmaking to its highest level in more than a decade last year, new figures show. After a slowdown in 2023, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the UK’s financial services industry rebounded last year with a 26 per cent year-on-year increase [...]
Grocery spending hit record high at Christmas as Brits favour food over gifts January 7, 2025 Grocery spending hit a record high this Christmas as Brits dined out on premium goods and fizz, in a marked contrast to the anaemic growth in retail spending. Overall take-home sales at the grocers rose by 2.1 per cent over the four weeks to 29 December compared with last year. Brits splashed out on premium [...]
Next: FTSE 100 retailer hikes profit guidance but warns on costs January 7, 2025 Retail industry bellwether Next has upgraded its profit outlook for the year after sales and growth exceeded expectations during the Golden Quarter. The FTSE 100 company hiked its expected profit by five per cent as sales jumped six per cent in the nine weeks to 28 December, nearly double its previous guidance of 3.5 per cent. [...]
Tesco and Sainsbury’s to shed light on Christmas sales performance January 5, 2025 The UK’s biggest supermarket groups will shed light next week on how they fared over the key Christmas period amid pressure on shoppers’ budgets. Tesco and Sainsbury’s will both provide third-quarter updates for investors and analysts, where they will reveal their sales for the weeks running up to Christmas. Both grocers are expected to reveal [...]
Why Dry January is just another month for this alcohol-free beer brand January 3, 2025 Highlighting a year of growth, we take a look at some of the biggest and most recent achievements of the rapidly-growing alcohol-free beer brand, Days Brewing. Two friends, one pandemic and a few cold (alcohol-free) beers later – a long-lasting business was created. In 2020, former AB InBev man Mike Gammell and ex-Propercorn marketing chief [...]
Retail in 2025: The year of personalisation, AI, wellness – and no more barcodes December 24, 2024 2024 has been a tough year for retail. From companies sounding the alarm on business rates in the first half of the year to low consumer confidence and footfall proving stickier than expected, the festive period has now been overshadowed by stark warnings about further cost rises next year. Restructuring partner at RSM UK, Gordon [...]
The best business books picked by CEOs December 22, 2024 Your Spotify Wrapped excitement might have now come and gone — if you’re not still questioning why your top artist was who it was — but fortunately, a new kind of ‘year in review’ list is here to take its place. Perlego, an educational technology company dubbed the “Spotify for textbooks” wrapped up the most-read [...]