Icelandair remains ‘cautiously optimistic’ about next year as it plans moderate growth October 27, 2022 Icelandic legacy carrier Icelandair remains “cautiously optimistic” about the next year, as it plans some moderate growth despite the current inflationary headwinds. “We are in a very good position,” chief executive Bogi Nils Bogason told City A.M. today. “We can be more flexible and focused depending on how our economies are developing. “[However] people are [...]
World Cup spells win for struggling advertising market October 27, 2022 The ad sector is set to score a much-needed goal this winter with the Qatar World Cup driving up advertising spend. According to new data from the Advertising Association (AA), ad spend for the final quarter is set to climb by 4.5 per cent from last year’s record high, to a total of £9.5bn. This [...]
Ad build-up to Qatar World Cup is ‘oh so quiet’ October 26, 2022 The World Cup is a little over three weeks away but it’s oh so quiet. At least when Björk sung those words, the accompanying music video by Spike Jonze showed people spontaneously spilling into the street in a Busby Berkeley-style choreographed celebration. But it’s increasingly hard to shake the feeling that there isn’t quite that [...]
THG shares swell after e-commerce retailer inks banking facility October 25, 2022 Shares in THG have surged after the group reported resilient sales of healthy and beauty products despite consumers tightening their belts. In third quarter results on Tuesday, the e-commerce retailer posted growth of 4.9 per cent in its beauty arm and 2.9 per cent in its nutrition division. Its share price surged by 19 per [...]
Tech stocks get ready for a rocky road ahead October 24, 2022 BIG TECH braces itself for another testing earnings season, as the biggest names in Silicon Valley post their quarterly figures this week. Kicking off the tumble last Friday, Snapchat posted a rocky quarter, citing squeezed ad spend and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty as the main driver. Not only has Snapchat’s parent firm lost a quarter of [...]
Nightmare before Christmas: Half of shoppers to fork out less for gifts October 24, 2022 Half of shoppers are intending on spending less on Christmas this year as plunging consumer confidence sparks further concern for businesses. One in three of those shoppers said they would slash present budgets for close friends and family by over £25 per person, according to data from market insights firm Kantar. Brits are facing sky-high [...]
Pound’s dramatic drop is biggest shock of this year, says City grandee October 24, 2022 The pound’s dramatic fall in the wake of the mini-budget market turmoil was the group’s biggest shock of the past year as a City insider likened the sterling sell-off to the Turkish lira crisis. Angela Cretu, global chief executive of beauty giant Avon International, said that sterling’s dramatic fall has caused challenges for the group, [...]
La Bohème at The Royal Opera House review October 23, 2022 Richard Jones’s La Bohème, now in its fourth revival at The Royal Opera House, is filled with glittering snow, bright lights, bold colours, and the (all too familiar) invisible hand of death and disease. Apologies for the doom and gloom, but no amount of 19th century Christmas jollity can make up for this Puccini classic [...]
Inside £9bn Battersea Power Station renovation October 20, 2022 It could have become a theme park in the 1990s if developers got their way. But last week the Battersea Power Station building reopened for the first time since the iconic development stopped lighting up London back in 1983. It powered Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament, supplying one fifth of London’s electricity, but [...]
Spam sales up nearly 40 per cent at Waitrose as price hikes bite October 20, 2022 BRITAIN’S DISCOUNT retailers are set for a winter windfall – with even Waitrose shoppers turning to spam and fish heads as the cost of living crisis bites. The sales of both have risen more than a third at the high-end supermarket over the past year, the firm confirmed overnight. Analysts reckon budget grocers like Aldi [...]