The stiff competition facing Royal Mail May 21, 2014 Ahead of its first set of full-year results as a listed company tomorrow, Royal Mail’s announced it’s going to trial delivering parcels on Sundays. Later this summer, it’ll open about 100 offices on Sunday afternoons for customers to pick up parcels. It’ll also pilot delivering parcels within the M25; and from June, Parcelforce Worldwide, its [...]
City & Gild: Has Gary Barlow shattered a dream brand? May 16, 2014 When I was a child and believed in Father Christmas, I bought into the whole “Ho ho ho” thing hook, line and sinker – to the point where I would lie awake on Christmas Eve, terrified that a complete stranger was going to come down the chimney and pad about the house. (To be honest, [...]
Asda returns to sales growth as price cuts kick in May 15, 2014 SUPERMARKET giant Asda said yesterday it had returned to underlying sales growth in its first quarter as price-cuts started to attract thrifty shoppers. Asda, which trails market leader Tesco by annual sales and is vying with Sainsbury’s to be the UK’s no2 grocer, said like-for-like sales rose 0.1 per cent in the 15 weeks to [...]
City’s old guard gets together over gulls’ eggs May 13, 2014 “PINSTRIPE is dead, long live pinstripe,” Matthew Wright, partner at NewSmith told The Capitalist, as we surveyed the crowd at Macmillan’s annual Gulls’ Egg Luncheon yesterday. “Seventy five per cent used to be pin stripe, now it’s deemed too brash,” he lamented. Taking place at Merchant Taylor’s Hall on Threadneedle Street, the luncheon sees the [...]
Three things you didn’t know about… May 11, 2014 CEO of Caxton FX Rupert Lee-Browne 1 His family owns copyright to a certain line of The Twelve Days of Christmas – “Five Gold Rings,” to be exact, as his great grandfather was one of the composers. “When the BBC decides to use that particular line we get a tuppence ha’penny.” 2 Rupert spent his [...]
Morrisons insists its price cuts will win back custom May 8, 2014 MORRISONS chief executive Dalton Philips insisted yesterday that its price-cutting plan will win over customers defecting to discount rivals despite the decline in like-for-like sales worsening in the first quarter of the year. Total sales excluding fuel fell 4.2 per cent in the 13 weeks to 4 May while like-for-like sales slumped 7.1 per cent, [...]
Premier League: Sunderland make miracle escape May 7, 2014 SUNDERLAND 2 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 0 JUBILANT Sunderland manager Gus Poyet insists he now believes in miracles after his team clinched an extraordinary feat of Premier League escapology last night. First-half goals from Jack Colback and Fabio Borini downed West Brom and earned the Black Cats a fourth consecutive win, effectively relegating Norwich simultaneously. Less [...]
Tesco to launch premium Hudl phone by Xmas May 6, 2014 TESCO yesterday announced that it would sell its own smartphone this year, following in the footsteps of its Hudl tablet last year. Tesco’s chief executive Philip Clarke, speaking on BBC Radio 5 yesterday morning, revealed the grocer’s plan to release a premium Hudl smartphone by Christmas. Clarke said the Hudl smartphone would be a high-end [...]
Why wait till Christmas? May 6, 2014 Visiting the US convinced Village East’s Toby Stuart of the value of turkey This turkey confit recipe was inspired by a trip to Chicago last summer. It’s a very vibrant city with some of the best chefs in the world working there. The top end of the market is phemomenal but you’ve also got places [...]
Mothercare shares slide over talks with lenders May 6, 2014 Shares in Mothercare fell more than five per cent this morning after it emerged this weekend that the retailer is in talks with its lenders again over the terms of its banking covenants just seven months after securing a £90m refinancing deal. The retailer, which has Mothercare and Early Learning Centre stores, asked [...]