Owner of Currys and PC World enjoys record Boxing Day sales January 16, 2014 DIXONS Retail emerged as one of the winners in the battle for consumers’ attention this Christmas as booming tablet sales and demand for kitchenware and large televisions helped drive sales. The owner of Currys and PC World said like-for-like sales in the UK & Ireland jumped five per cent in the period from 1 November [...]
BlackRock backs Bolton against Italian civil suit January 12, 2014 BLACKROCK said it has conducted a full internal investigation and found no evidence to support allegations that fund manager Nigel Bolton is guilty of insider trading. It emerged on Friday that Consob, the Italian securities regulator, had launched civil proceedings against Bolton, a portfolio manager and head of BlackRock Investment Management’s European equity team, accusing [...]
JD Sports enters the New Year with steady sales growth January 10, 2014 JD Sports has reported like-for-like sales for the group's core Fascia stores are now marginally ahead of the 5.8 per cent rise seen in the for the forty two weeks to 23 November. The group believes the most recent six weeks trading has given the company hope for further progress over the course of 2014. [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 16 December 2013 December 15, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Sale of NuGen stake boosts plans Westinghouse, the Japanese-owned engineering group, will shortly announce that it is buying a big stake in one of the UK’s three nuclear-building consortiums, inthe latest example of Asian investment in UK infrastructure. Westinghouse, which is owned by Toshiba, is expected to announce it is acquiring a 50 [...]
RSA seeks calm from investors after stock slide December 15, 2013 RSA INSURANCE yesterday scrambled to reassure shareholders about its future after investors wiped more than £260m off the company in the wake of chief executive Simon Lee’s resignation. Chairman Martin Scicluna and senior executives have spent the weekend speaking with top investors about the next steps for the firm after it flagged a £130m black [...]
Cameron’s selfie was not his first December 10, 2013 WE ALL love a good selfie. Selfies on a Friday night down the boozer, selfies wearing snazzy outfits, selfies with celebrities. Never one to shy away from jumping on a bandwagon, our very own Prime Minister has certainly proved himself to be quite the fan of the selfie in recent months. Yesterday’s photo op with [...]
Christmas cheer kicks off with card spending boost December 9, 2013 A SEASONAL boost in consumer spending began last month, with new figures from millions of credit and debit cards showing a three per cent increase from October. Online sales were particularly popular in November, according to Barclaycard, swelling to just over a fifth of all spending. Black Friday’s frenzied shopping has now arrived from the [...]
Online frenzy drives growth at John Lewis ahead of Christmas December 8, 2013 JOHN Lewis posted a 1.8 per cent rise in sales to £144.5m in the week to 7 December, boosted by another record performance by its online business. Johnlewis.com sales rose 22 per cent compared to the same week last year – a second consecutive week in which the site has taken over a third of [...]
Cameron mistakes Waterstones for a small business December 8, 2013 WE’RE big fans of American imports here in the UK; we’ve adopted Black Friday as though St George himself spent the first Friday after Thanksgiving hunting for discounted iPads, and now we’re celebrating Small Business Saturday too. Helping support its debut in the UK, government figures made an effort to get out and shop local [...]
Cyber Monday to smash online sales records December 2, 2013 ONLINE retailer Amazon has said it expects to receive more than 4m orders today as UK shoppers flock to online stores on so-called Cyber Monday, a rise of around 15 per cent on the same day last year. Amazon also claimed that its new fashion store, which has signed up 50 brands this year, will [...]