Aer Lingus loses passengers but wins EU lawsuit February 5, 2015 BOTH Aer Lingus and rival EasyJet have posted disappointing passenger numbers for the first month of 2015. The Irish flag carrier said mainline passenger numbers fell 4.5 per cent year-on-year in January to 546,000. Aer Lingus, which is subject to a potential takeover bid from British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG), said its long-haul [...]
Sire De Grugy on comeback trail in Game Spirit Chase February 5, 2015 BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS PREVIEWS TOMORROW’S CLASSY CARD AT NEWBURY SIRE DE Grugy is set to make his eagerly-awaited reappearance in tomorrow’s Game Spirit Chase at Newbury (3.00pm) with a defence of his Betway Champion Chase crown at the Cheltenham Festival in March the ultimate goal. Gary Moore has written exclusively for Betway over the last [...]
A weekend of gourmet indulgence with Heston Blumenthal on the Mont Blanc slopes February 5, 2015 You know a Heston Blumenthal meal is going to be something special. The same, it turns out, goes for a Heston Blumenthal holiday. The concept is a foodie’s wet dream: four days of crisp slopes, fine Italian wine and haute cuisine cooked by some of the world’s top chefs. Here’s how it came about: “Heston [...]
Eurozone gets Christmas lift from fastest sales growth since 2007 February 4, 2015 CHRISTMAS shoppers defied the Eurozone’s problems at the end of last year, driving retail sales growth close to an eight-year high. The volume of retail sales in the currency bloc jumped by 2.8 per cent in December, compared to the same month a year earlier – the quickest year-on-year expansion since early 2007. Compared to November, [...]
Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner heralds “online grocery revolution” as firm records first full year profit February 3, 2015 Ocado has made its first full-year profit in the company's 15-year history The figures Pre-tax profit was £7.2m for the 12 months to 30 November, compared to a loss of £12.5m during the equivalent period a year earlier. Sales went up from £843m to £972.4m, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose [...]
National Sickie Day: Colleagues thin on the ground? Perhaps they’re at a job interview February 2, 2015 Is your office looking a little quiet? Colleagues thin on the ground? It could be because today is National Sickie Day, the day recruiters and employment experts say has the highest absenteeism of the whole year. In total around 350,000 people are expected to call in sick today. Often it's because people are [...]
Sizzling Christmas fails to stop Cranswick revenues going cold January 29, 2015 BRITISH pork and pies producer Cranswick saw its shares close down almost two per cent yesterday after it announced underlying revenues for the third quarter were down three per cent. Shares in the FTSE 250-listed company closed down 1.84 per cent yesterday. The company put the bad quarter down to input prices growing, which were [...]
M&B sees some Christmas cheer as sales increase January 29, 2015 PUB GROUP Mitchells & Butlers yesterday said it saw a good performance over the festive trading period. However, it warned its margins remained under pressure owing to the integration of the Orchid business, which it purchased for £266m last June, and pricing pressures. The FTSE 250-listed company said sales in the 17 weeks to 27 January [...]
Unexposed Ziga Boy can deliver for King January 29, 2015 FFOS LAS stages its biggest meeting of the year tomorrow and the Betway-sponsored card promises to deliver some fantastic action. The final declarations won’t be out until later this morning, so there is a degree of guesswork needed, but the race I’m going to focus on first is the Betway West Welsh National (2.40pm). Venetia [...]
2015 ticks off to a good start January 28, 2015 Richemont’s finest came to SIHH with some horological humdingers Wandering the lofty, beige halls of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) inside Geneva Airport’s cavernous Palexpo complex – “probably the most luxurious trade fair in the world” – the seeming neutrality of its colour-scheme belies the horological hierarchy at play here. Unlike the [...]