It’s a tale of two Christmasses for Primark owner Associated January 15, 2015 CHRISTMAS was sweet and sour for Primark owner Associated British Foods, with the discount clothing chain reporting a 15 per cent jump in sales over the festive period. However, ABF forecast a slight decline in full-year profits after reporting a three per cent rise in group revenues for the last quarter at constant currency rates. [...]
Road to Cheltenham January 15, 2015 EVERY Friday between now and the start of the Cheltenham Festival, I’ll be taking a look at the feature races and will attempt to identify some value in the current ante-post markets. The first race we are going to look at is the Racing Post Arkle Chase, where the betting is currently headed by the [...]
Finsbury Park was “entirely unsuitable” as King’s Cross replacement, admits transport boss. No kidding January 15, 2015 A transport boss has gone on the record to admit that Network Rail's decision to use Finsbury Park station as a replacement for King's Cross while the latter was out of action over Christmas, thus causing abject misery for thousands of travellers, was "entirely unsuitable". Robin Gisby, Network Rail's managing director of network operations, appeared [...]
Primark sales soar 15pc but Associated British Foods warns lower sugar prices will hit profits January 15, 2015 Primark will not do enough to offset the fall in sugar prices and currency headwinds for parent company Associated British Foods, which is expecting a "marginal decline" in adjusted earnings per share for the year. Total revenues at ABF grew three per cent for the 16 weeks to 3 January, with Primark providing the bulk [...]
Burberry sales slowed by Hong Kong protests January 14, 2015 BURBERRY said sales in Asia slowed in the third quarter of its year to “low single-digit growth” after the Hong Kong protests deterred shoppers from visiting its stores. Chief financial officer Carol Fairweather said footfall across its Hong Kong stores was “significantly down” because of the protests, which made some of the city’s core shopping [...]
Shop Direct delivers Very merry Christmas as online orders boom January 14, 2015 LITTLEWOODS owner Shop Direct yesterday said sales surged over the Christmas period as Black Friday became its busiest shopping day. The online and catalogue retailer, owned by billionaire brothers Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, said sales across its biggest website Very.co.uk were up 134 per cent year-on-year on the US-style shopping day. Chief executive [...]
Supergroup shares surge after cold winter snap boosts demand January 14, 2015 SUPERGROUP’S shares surged yesterday as the owner of the Superdry fashion label said sales had rebounded over Christmas, helped by the onset of the cold winter weather. In a trading statement released ahead of plan, the retailer said like-for-like sales jumped 12.4 per cent in the 11 weeks to 10 January as customers snapped up [...]
Ocado outperforms its rivals during Christmas and sees sales rise 15pc January 14, 2015 ONLINE grocer Ocado yesterday announced that it had outperformed its traditional supermarket rivals over Christmas, adding it was confident about prospects in 2015 despite an escalating price war. The firm, whose range includes products supplied by upmarket grocer Waitrose, said sales growth in December continued at the rate it achieved in the final quarter of [...]
Bumper Christmas for shopping centre January 14, 2015 OVER half a million shoppers visited Quintain’s London Designer Outlet, home to retailers such as H&M and Gap, during the 2014 festive season. The Wembley-based outlet centre, which opened in October 2013, hosted 18,000 last minute bargain-hunters on Christmas Eve alone.
Waitrose pulls a Christmas cracker with festive sales January 14, 2015 Things may be bleak for the big four supermarkets, but for the smaller, challenger, businesses initial signs are that Christmas was a real cracker. Waitrose has topped off a strong year, in which it had grown market share to five per cent by December, according to its Christmas figures published today. The John [...]