Only 11th hour spree can save goal-shy QPR January 30, 2013 QUEENS Park Rangers might have pulled off an unlikely draw against champions Manchester City on Tuesday, but all is far from well at Loftus Road. I’ve never seen manager Harry Redknapp look more annoyed with a group of players, while chairman Tony Fernandes has even talked about walking away. Draws, even against big teams, are [...]
F&C funds lose £5bn after key contract pulled January 30, 2013 F&C ASSET Management yesterday posted a £4.9bn fall in the amount of money it manages after losing a contract with insurer Friends Life. The money manager, which is in the midst of a radical turnover led by activist owner Ed Bramson, saw £2.4bn of fixed income cash pulled out by the insurer, which will now [...]
Amazon climbs to new high on record results January 29, 2013 AMAZON saw record sales over the Christmas period, propelling the online retailer to new heights as the high street suffered. The company last night posted revenues of $21.27bn (£13.5bn) for the fourth quarter of 2012, a 22 per cent increase on the same period last year. Although revenues were less than analysts had predicted, Wall [...]
Tesco fightback steadies giant’s market share January 29, 2013 TESCO maintained its market share and matched market growth for the first time since June 2011, according to the latest grocery share data from Kantar Worldpanel. The UK’s biggest supermarket grew sales year-on-year by 3.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to 20 January, giving it a market share of 30.4 per cent, as its [...]
Premier Foods’ shares tumble as chief resigns January 28, 2013 SHARES in the company behind Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes tumbled yesterday after its chief executive quit after just 18 months at the helm. Premier Foods said Michael Clarke, who joined from Kraft Foods in September 2011, had indicated to the board over Christmas he was considering moving on “to pursue other business opportunities”. [...]
Ryanair lifts profit forecast January 28, 2013 Low cost carrier Ryanair this morning hiked its full-year profit guidance on the back of strong growth in the third quarter. The airline now expects full-year profits to come in at around €540m (£461m), a seven per cent increase on last year. Previous guidance was set at between €490m and €520m. Over the third quarter, [...]
Boss at Punch trades pints for Greggs pasties January 24, 2013 PUNCH TAVERNS boss Roger Whiteside will give up happy hours for elevenses when he becomes the new chief executive of bakery chain Greggs next month. Whiteside, who has been a non-executive director at Greggs since 2008, will succeed Ken McMeikan on 4 February, the firm said yesterday. McMeikan, who drove the government to retreat on [...]
Christmas sales growth fizzles out in January January 24, 2013 RETAIL sales growth slowed this month, a leading business survey showed yesterday, although the figures were still slightly better than downbeat shops had feared. For the first two weeks of the year 41 per cent of retailers reported rising sales compared with the same period of last year, the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) study [...]
UK faces record vacancy rates in 2013 as administrations rise January 24, 2013 RECENT retail administrations could lead to a doubling of store closures on Britain’s high streets, according to a report from the Local Data Company (LDC). The latest monthly figures from the LDC show that the shop vacancy rate decreased for a third month in a row by 0.06 per cent to 14.25 per cent in [...]
Bank lending to firms plunges again despite government aid January 24, 2013 GOVERNMENT schemes to boost lending to companies have failed to turn around the firms’ deleveraging since the crisis, according to industry figures out yesterday. Net lending to non-financial firms plunged by £3.5bn in December, even faster than the £3.1bn fall in November and the biggest dip since June, the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) revealed. The [...]