Libby’s Naked Diary January 8, 2025 NEW YEARS Eve can be a strange affair. One year becomes another and we feel duty bound to have Fun (with the capital F). I have celebrated in a multitude of ways, from throwing far too much money at a star-spangled event in Miami to wallowing in the dead space of an oversized Wetherspoons after [...]
Seasalt: Cornish clothing brand bucks retail gloom over festive season January 7, 2025 Cornish retailer Seasalt has defied the despondent British high street and reported a significant uptick in sales over the Christmas season despite significant cost pressures. Total sales across online, stores, and marketplace partners like M&S increased by 10 per cent compared to last year in the last five weeks of the year, with every channel [...]
Grocery spending hit record high at Christmas as Brits favour food over gifts January 7, 2025 Grocery spending hit a record high this Christmas as Brits dined out on premium goods and fizz, in a marked contrast to the anaemic growth in retail spending. Overall take-home sales at the grocers rose by 2.1 per cent over the four weeks to 29 December compared with last year. Brits splashed out on premium [...]
Johnson Matthey: US investor ramps up activist campaign January 7, 2025 Johnson Matthey’s largest shareholder has piled pressure on the FTSE 250 chemicals group, calling its response to a demanded strategic review “wholly insufficient”. In an open letter to Johnson Matthey chair Patrick Thomas, today, US industrials investor Standard Investments slammed the group’s “destruction of shareholder value” as part of its activist campaign. Last month, Standard [...]
Next: FTSE 100 retailer hikes profit guidance but warns on costs January 7, 2025 Retail industry bellwether Next has upgraded its profit outlook for the year after sales and growth exceeded expectations during the Golden Quarter. The FTSE 100 company hiked its expected profit by five per cent as sales jumped six per cent in the nine weeks to 28 December, nearly double its previous guidance of 3.5 per cent. [...]
Six months on, Labour’s pledge to restore trust in politics has proven nonsense January 7, 2025 Six months on, where have Labour's promises of radical reform gone, asks James Chapman in today's Notebook.
With expectations so low, Starmer might just carve out a win January 7, 2025 From a news perspective, the Christmas break was more Deck the Halls than Silent Night. Keir Starmer ended last year with approval ratings so low that critics were never going to call off the dogs in the spirit of good will to all men. The PM couldn’t even enjoy a toboggan run in Madeira without [...]
Retail gloom as festive season fails to save 2024 trading January 7, 2025 High street stores showed anaemic growth in the 2024 festive season, despite hopes that Christmas trading would inject some cheer into the sector. Sales grew just 0.3 per cent overall in the ‘golden quarter’, which includes Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Online sales continued to beat in-store, [...]
Why the state should stay out of the kitchen January 7, 2025 A think tank has seriously floated the idea of government-run restaurants. The idea belongs in an age of wartime rationing, not the thriving, free-market food scene the City enjoys today, says Matthew Kilcoyne One wonders if the festive sherry stocks have been hit rather hard in certain London think tanks this Christmas. How else to [...]
Healthcare: Could the private sector help Keir Starmer cut NHS waiting lists? January 6, 2025 Plans for a “new agreement” to more closely link the NHS and the private healthcare sector have been unveiled today in a bid to slash waiting lists for patients. The National Health Service (NHS) and the independent sector have struck a new deal which ministers say will improve patient choice as part of plans to [...]