Aldi hitting the mainstream as customers seek value January 8, 2013 THIS time last year poor results at Tesco shocked investors and the grocery sector, although followers of YouGov’s BrandIndex and this column would have been aware of their problems a month earlier. With the all-important Christmas season now behind us I’ve taken a look back at 2012 to see what the big customer perception stories [...]
UK Mail delivers soaring sales during online shopping rush January 8, 2013 PARCEL delivery company UK Mail Group said yesterday its trading in the third quarter exceeded its expectations, boosted by higher volumes during Christmas. UK Mail, the largest independent parcels, mail and logistics services company in the UK, said underlying revenue increased about eight per cent for the three-months to 31 December, after adjusting for an [...]
The simplest ideas can offer the deepest insights into how markets work January 8, 2013 TRAGEDY struck at a mid-week game played during the holiday season in Football League Division Two. The pies ran out in the home supporters’ bar. The incident may seem trivial to those not involved, but it illustrates some important themes in economics, which have even gained their inventors the Nobel Prize. It turns out that [...]
Rapid responses January 8, 2013 Planning inflation [Re: Daft planning rules are pushing up the price of food in shops, yesterday] While it is always good for an article about planning policy to focus on commercial property rather than housing, and while the academics cited may have delivered interesting papers, let’s not use this work to justify more fiddling with [...]
FTSE 100 edges up as Anglo American names new chief executive January 8, 2013 Markets made a hesitant start to the day, and the FTSE 100 edged up slightly in early trading. News that Mark Cutifani has been appointed to the top job at global miner Anglo American stole the headlines this morning. He starts the role on 3 April and takes over from current head Cynthia Carroll. As [...]
Daft planning rules are pushing up the price of food in shops January 8, 2013 IF you travelled abroad over Christmas, you will have noticed that goods in shops are often cheaper than in the UK. A uSwitch survey cited by the Institute of Economic Affairs shows that a food basket costs roughly a fifth more in the UK than it does in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Once again, [...]
Daft planning rules are pushing up the price of food in shops January 7, 2013 IF you travelled abroad over Christmas, you will have noticed that goods in shops are often cheaper than in the UK. A uSwitch survey cited by the Institute of Economic Affairs shows that a food basket costs roughly a fifth more in the UK than it does in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Once again, [...]
App Store has made $10bn in sales for Apple January 7, 2013 APPLE has seen more than $10bn (£6.2bn) spent on apps since it launched its App Store four and a half years ago. The iPad and iPhone maker said that more than 40bn apps have been downloaded since July 2008, and that the rate is increasing, with nearly 20bn of those downloads occurring in 2012 alone. [...]
Morrisons says Christmas sales disappointing January 7, 2013 MORRISONS chief executive Dalton Philips yesterday defended his strategy for the group after the grocer confirmed its position as the turkey among “the big four” this Christmas. The grocer reported a 2.5 per cent slump in like-for-like sales in the six weeks to 30 December, despite the help from an extra pre-Christmas trading day compared [...]
New Look says turnaround plan paying off as festive sales rise January 7, 2013 VALUE fashion retailer New Look said it enjoyed a stellar Christmas trading period as it benefited from shoppers delaying spending and hunting for bargain buys. The firm, owned by private equity groups Apax, Permira and founder Tom Singh, posted a 3.7 per cent rise in UK like-for-like sales for the 14 weeks to 29 December. [...]