Can a family friendly ski school in the Austrian Alps transform your kids into tiny champions? January 25, 2016 The trouble I’ve found with family ski holidays is, without wanting to put too fine a point on it, my family. Actually, that’s a bit harsh. They aren’t bad skiers. We’ve been able to ski red and blue runs together for two seasons, but always at the pace of my youngest, the five-year-old, which as [...]
Our savings slump is lowering our productivity – and even highly paid individuals are financially vulnerable January 25, 2016 We’re nearly there: long after the Christmas credit card bills landed, January’s payday is finally in sight for most of us. Many of us will have tightened our belts this month metaphorically as well as literally this month after a festive overspend. It’s not a pleasant experience. But new SMF research suggests it could also be damaging [...]
High street retailers steal share of physical entertainment market from Amazon January 25, 2016 Sales of physical DVDs, CDs and video games may be dropping but bricks and mortar stores are still holding their own after taking market share from the likes of Amazon in the quarter. According to Kantar Worldpanel figures, high street retailers took 68 per cent of spend on physical entertainment in the 12 weeks to 20 [...]
Falling demand for diamonds and the weak South African rand weigh on Petra Diamonds’ revenues January 25, 2016 Petra Diamonds, the FTSE listed miner, announced revenues for the last six months fell 28 per cent, as a result of falling diamond prices, and a weak South African rand. The figures Revenue fell 28 per cent to $154m (£108m) in the six months ending December, down from $214.8m the year before. This includes the $10.5m sale of a 23.16 [...]
M Restaurant’s Martin Williams on Wagyu, division bells and building a brand January 25, 2016 There is something of the Midas touch about Martin Williams. Forty minutes into an interview about his restaurants, M Threadneedle Street and M Victoria Street – currently two of the capital’s trendiest hangouts – he mentions his previous life as an actor. Despite being successful on stage and TV in his early twenties, the on-off [...]
UK retailers prove a hit with shoppers overseas as smartphone browsing soars January 25, 2016 The number of international shoppers using their smartphones to browse for UK brands has jumped over the last quarter, new research shows, as growth on mobile devices continued to outstrip tablets. According to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Google, beauty and apparel enjoyed the biggest rise in search volumes on mobile devices, [...]
Outdoor retailer Mountain Warehouse eyes £200m IPO after hiring Rothschild January 24, 2016 Mountain Warehouse is eyeing a £200m stock market debut after hiring investment bank Rothschild to explore options for the business. The outdoor clothing and equipment retailer was founded by former management consultant and Oxford physics graduate Mark Neale, who opened his first shop in Swindon in the late 1990s. It now operates 191 stores in [...]
With just one week left until self-assessment tax return deadline day, people confess they’d rather undergo a trip to the dentist’s chair than fill out their tax forms January 24, 2016 Unbelievably, there is something people dread more than a trip to the dentist's office, and you don't even get a sticker and a lollipop for good behaviour afterwards. According to a survey by Which?, 38 per cent of people loathe completing their tax return more than they do going to the dentist. Other tasks people would [...]
Tesco to drop diesel prices further to 97.7p from today January 22, 2016 Tesco has said it will drop its diesel prices even further, committing to lowering the price of the fuel to 97.7p at all of its 500 filling stations from midday today. The supermarket was one of many to bring the price of diesel below £1 at the start of the year, alongside Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons, [...]
Weird Christmas? Retail sales fell in December – as clothing sales were hit by warm weather January 22, 2016 Either people finished their Christmas shopping early this year, or they had a decidedly miserly Christmas. Official figures have shown retail sales actually fell by one per cent between November and December. But the figures, by the Office for National Statistics, showed sales rose 2.6 per cent compared with the year before, while online sales rose 8.2 per cent. [...]