Supermarket price war fails to save sector as it enters negative sales territory for first time on record November 18, 2014 The supermarket "price war" has failed to help kick-start sales, with the sector falling into negative territory for the first time since records began in 1994. Sales were down 0.2 per cent for the 12 weeks to November 9, according to Kantar Worldpanel. The average basket price of everyday goods such as milk, bread [...]
Supermarkets Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons told they must shrink to survive in war against discounters Aldi and Lidl November 17, 2014 Supermarkets need to dramatically scale down their store estates if they want to stop haemorrhaging sales and return to growth, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs who sent a stark warning to the retail industry. In a research note published yesterday, Goldman Sachs said Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons must cut space by around 20 per [...]
Are you a Waitrose Wendy or a Tesco Tracey: How do the UK’s supermarket shoppers look? November 17, 2014 What does a Waitrose shopper look like, and how would you tell them apart from a Sainsbury's regular? There's actually not much to choose between them, according to YouGov, which has just released the best visualisation tool we've seen for a while. What YouGov says is particular (as opposed to generally true) about [...]
Sainsbury’s Christmas advert 2014: Storm surrounding marketing seen by turn as epic or disrespectful November 16, 2014 The film had its world premier on Wednesday. Some 8m people have already tuned in to see it and it has split critics down the middle, being described as “a masterpiece”, “grim”, “epic”, and “disrespectful”. It’s not the latest blockbuster movie, but Sainsbury’s two-minute Christmas ad. There was a time, not so very long [...]
2014 City A.M. awards: It’s always good to toast the best of the City – Editor’s Letter November 13, 2014 In a matter of weeks, during the first few days of January, I will be calling people to invite them to next year’s City A.M. awards. The event, the latest of which was held last night, has become a fixture in the City calendar and has grown in stature since its inception. Last night, [...]
From Aldi to PwC: the year’s heroes revealed November 13, 2014 The 2014 City A.M. awards were as glamorous and entertaining as ever with guest speaker Sir Martin Sorrell kicking off an exciting ceremony with 14 awards given THE GRANGE St Paul’s Hotel was packed to the rafters last night with some of the City’s favourite faces as the City A.M. awards took its annual place [...]
City A.M. award winners 2014 are… November 13, 2014 CITY A.M. AWARDS 2014 Congratulations to all the enterprising winners of our fifth annual awards. PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR Nigel Wilson Legal & General BUSINESS OF THE YEAR Aldi ACCOUNTANCY FIRM OF THE YEAR PwC ANALYST OF THE YEAR Ian Whittaker Liberum BANK OF THE YEAR Handelsbanken BUSINESS SERVICES FIRM OF THE YEAR Compass Group [...]
PwC, Uber and Zoopla win big at the 2014 City A.M. Awards November 13, 2014 From Legal & General boss Nigel Wilson to WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, you could barely move at the fifth annual City A.M. Awards – held last night at the Grange St Paul's Hotel – without bashing elbows with a few City grandees. The ceremony celebrated the brightest and best of the nation's money-makers – [...]
Asda sales fall for first time since 2010 but market share grows as boss Andy Clarke heralds strong performance in “distressed market” November 13, 2014 Having largely kept its head above water as sales and market share sinked at fellow supermarkets, Asda is finally feeling the pinch. The supermarket published figures today showing sales slipped for the first time since 2010 during its third quarter. The UK’s second largest supermarket said like-for-like sales fell 1.6 per cent in the three [...]
Sainsbury’s to slash prices as profits plunge November 12, 2014 SAINSBURY’S boss Mike Coupe said yesterday that the retailer was “taking the fight to the enemy” as he unveiled plans to cut costs and its dividend to fund a £150m price offensive against its discount supermarket rivals. The grocer’s nine-year run of uninterrupted sales growth came to a grinding halt this year as changing shopping [...]