€14M WAR CHEST FOR WIGLEY’S FILM PLOT April 6, 2011 EACH year, the Big Curry Lunch hosted by Lord Mayor Michael Bear gets “bigger and better” according to Bear, with 800 guests from the City, Parliament and Livery Companies sitting down to three servings yesterday at the Guildhall. The annual banquet is held in aid of ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, and this year’s event raised [...]
Corporate lift for Park Group April 5, 2011 CHRISTMAS hampers and voucher specialists Park Group said it expects trading to be in line with market expectations for its year ending 31 March and Christmas 2011 orders are up five per cent year-on-year. Liverpool-based Park Group will report full results on 14 June, but said it had performed well despite the freeze before Christmas [...]
M&S to add to retail gloom April 3, 2011 MARKS and Spencer, the retail bellwether, is likely to add to the sense of impending doom on the High Street when it reports a sharp drop in sales later this week. Analysts expect like-for-like sales of general merchandise – which exclude food – to have fallen by a “grisly” six per cent in the fourth [...]
M&S returns to France April 1, 2011 Marks and Spencer will return to France this year with stores in Paris and its first international website, it announced today. The new website will be in French and is set to trade in Euros. A new store will be opened in Champs-Elysees, central Paris, in the next few months and will sell both womenswear [...]
Labour market recovery boosts optimism on US March 30, 2011 AN ADP report yesterday showed that private employers added 201,000 jobs in March – slightly below consensus expectations for an increase of 208,000 jobs. Small and medium firm payroll growth remained strong in March, adding 102,000 and 82,000 jobs, while large firms added 17,000 jobs. “This indicates continued momentum in the pace of labour market [...]
Wake up and smell the instant coffee March 24, 2011 CHRISTMAS?2010 will be remembered as Britain’s last big spending splurge. What better way to end almost two decades of unsustainable, debt-fuelled largesse than with a massive turkey dinner and tonnes of presents? Supermarkets could barely believe it as families spent more than ever before on rich food and booze; John Lewis notched up record sales. [...]
Solid sales for United Utilities March 24, 2011 UNITED Utilities, the largest listed water utility, said trading in the second-half had been slightly ahead of its expectations, putting it on track for a solid underlying performance for the year. The company said regulated revenue had continued the positive trend from the first-half, but would be slightly lower in the second, reflecting seasonal changes. [...]
BAA to spend £50m to tackle snow March 24, 2011 Airports operator BAA said it would invest £50M in better winter defences after a report criticised its response to the snow-induced chaos at London’s Heathrow airport last year. An inquiry into BAA’s handling of last year’s big freeze, which closed runways in the week before Christmas, said BAA had to prove it can keep Heathrow [...]
Next warns over bleak outlook March 24, 2011 Next said trading conditions in 2011 were likely to get worse before they get better, as it posted an expected nine per cent rise in profit for the year. “Retailing will feel like walking up the down escalator – we will have to work hard to stand still,” Chief executive Simon Wolfson, said. The retail [...]
Slowdown in sales growth at Sainsbury’s March 23, 2011 SAINSBURY’S said yesterday that its sales growth was slowing with fears over the economy draining consumer confidence. Chief executive Justin King said that the company was performing well considering the challenges facing retailers. Like-for-like sales for the fourth-quarter were up by one per cent, below market expectations, and against growth of 3.6 per cent in [...]