Rose will keep up Ocado’s appearances – but little else January 22, 2013 WHEN Sir Stuart Rose dipped his toe back in the retail waters by becoming chairman of Blue Inc and backing The Hut last year, it should have been obvious he had his eye on bigger things. But why Ocado? This column – not to mention several high-profile City analysts – have long taken a dim [...]
Tesco is already bouncing back from burger debacle January 22, 2013 SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has faced a brand crisis with the revelation that it sold beef burgers contaminated by horse meat in its stores. In such situations, daily tracking of the public’s perceptions of the under-pressure brand really comes into its own. So – how quickly did the news spread and what was the impact on [...]
Tesco in new online push January 21, 2013 TESCO intensified its dotcom push yesterday by opening its fifth “dark store” near Crawley, West Sussex. The dotcom store, which will create 700 jobs, will serve only online shoppers. The supermarket typically offers an instore pick-up service for its online customers, but is ramping up its dotcom store presence thanks to growing demand in and [...]
Fighting against the future can only buy so much time January 21, 2013 THE decision by HMV’s administrators Deloitte to honour gift vouchers and to pay proceeds raised for charity singles is a piece of luck for those caught out by the music chain’s crisis. While at first sight this is less heartwarming for the chain’s other creditors, it may in fact be slightly upbeat news for them [...]
Entertainment pros who thought outside the box January 20, 2013 WHEN Michael Comish and Adrian Letts first met, they prefaced everything they said with “just so you know I’m not stealing your idea, here’s what I think”. They needn’t have worried. What emerged was a concept that seems so obvious now it may leave you pondering that frustrating question: “Why didn’t I think of that?” [...]
Tesco cuts US jobs ahead of exit January 17, 2013 Retail giant Tesco has slashed 50 jobs at its US company Fresh & Easy as it gears up to pull out of North America. Most of the cuts are coming at its head office in Los Angeles. Tesco said: “We have cut a small number of positions in the head office as we continue the [...]
Fiasco over results tests M&S’s loyalty to Tulchan January 17, 2013 THERE is little more certain in life than this: one firm’s misfortune will be seized on by rivals desperate to take advantage of another’s woes. So it is that a host of financial public relation agencies have been bending the ears of Marks & Spencer executives to test the retailer’s loyalty to its incumbent agency [...]
Stobart Group shares skid after haulage firm warns on profits January 17, 2013 STOBART Group’s shares fell by almost three per cent yesterday after the FTSE 250-listed lorry firm warned it would fall short of profit forecasts and announced the closure of its chilled business. The firm said its operating performance for the year will be slightly below market expectations, due to slower than hoped progress on its [...]
Tesco horse meat mustn’t shake our faith in cheap food January 17, 2013 TAINTED food scandals are as old as the hills. In 1858, more than 200 were poisoned when a Bradford confectioner, known as Humbug Billy, accidentally mixed arsenic into his peppermint lozenges. More recently, mad cow disease led to the slaughter of 4.4m cattle. Poor quality has also never respected rank. Back in 1135, King Henry [...]
Horse burger fears spread January 16, 2013 SAINSBURY’S, the Co-op and ASDA yesterday cleared their shelves of burgers supplied by companies at the centre of a horse meat scandal. There is no evidence the three supermarkets sold contaminated products but they have taken the precautionary measure following Tuesday’s revelation that the meat content in a sample of Tesco’s Everyday Beef Burgers was 29 per cent [...]