A feathered and furry flock at St. Paul’s cathedral yesterday January 16, 2013 TRACTORS, combine harvesters, chicken, sheep and other furry animals took up residence outside St. Paul’s yesterday. City workers flocked to the cathedral at lunchtime, sandwiches in hand, to get a closer look at the animals, who seemed to be munching their way through a fair few Pret scraps themselves. Plough Wednesday takes place to remind [...]
Horse meat in Tesco burgers January 15, 2013 HORSE meat has been found in beef burgers sold by leading British and Irish supermarkets, it emerged last night. One sample of the meat in Tesco’s Everyday Value Beef Burgers was found to be 29 per cent horse, according to Ireland’s Food Safety Authority (FSAI). Tesco has responded by pulling the burgers from its stores. [...]
Tesco and Sainsbury’s maintain share after a festive dead-heat January 15, 2013 BRITAIN’S biggest retailer Tesco and third-place grocer Sainsbury’s tied in the battle for sales growth in the key Christmas period, according to data published yesterday. Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Tesco and Sainsbury’s both posted identical gross sales growth rates of 3.9 per cent in the six weeks ending 6 January, with market shares unchanged [...]
Online shopping is masking the birth of hybrid retailers January 15, 2013 THE fall of yet another iconic British retailer, HMV, does little to assuage fears that the high street in its current form is in terminal decline. The statistics are bleak. According to a survey by PwC and the Local Data Company, 32 stores closed each day in July and August 2012. Over one gloomy five [...]
Little Christmas cheer for retail January 14, 2013 Chief Market Strategist, Cantor Index THE official retail activity figures, which are posted monthly or at specific times like Christmas, are accurate but often indecipherable to the layman. The small print is where the message is. And the most recent figures suggest that Christmas was great for some, but brutal for others. The situation was [...]
The good, the bad January 10, 2013 THE DIVIDED state of the UK retail sector was brought into sharp focus yesterday as an upbeat Tesco and Shop Direct claimed victory in the Christmas retail wars, while Marks and Spencer suffered the fallout of a worse-than-expected festive period. Following muted performances by rivals Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, a resurgent Tesco revealed its strongest sales [...]
Why Tesco’s cracking results took the Christmas crown January 10, 2013 HOW to find a clear winner in the Christmas battle of the supermarkets? Not from the headline figures, it seems, after straightforward data releases from Sainsbury and Tesco descended into a furore over the small print. Tesco reported like-for-like sales growth of 1.8 per cent over Christmas. Sainsbury reported like-for-like growth of 0.9 per cent. [...]
Hilton agrees Australian venture January 10, 2013 Hilton Food, the meat packing company which supplies major retailers including Tesco, yesterday reported a “solid” performance in the UK and Ireland last year and said that it had performed in line with board expectations. The group, which is due to publish its full-year results in March, also announced it is stepping up its expansion [...]
Profit-taking cannot halt FTSE as it hits highest close since May 2008 January 10, 2013 BRITAIN’S top share index closed above the 6,100 resistance level for the first time since 22 May 2008, yesterday, recovering from a late wobble after a choppy trading session. The FTSE 100 index was up 2.86 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 6,101,51, having seen some late profit-taking erased in the closing auction, but the [...]
FTSE 100 edges up as retailers in spotlight January 10, 2013 After hitting a four-year high during trading yesterday, the FTSE 100 continued its momentum this morning and was trading modestly up, with supermarket giant Tesco an early leader. This morning the supermarket posted its strongest UK growth over three years, as it said like for like UK sales were up by 1.8 per cent over [...]