House of Fraser celebrates sales January 10, 2010 Own-brand labels helped department store group House of Fraser to surging Christmas sales. Like-for-like sales rose 7.1 per cent in the eight weeks to 2 January, following a 1.5 per cent fall during the same period a year ago. Chief executive John King said the figures meant House of Fraser was a festive winner, putting [...]
Bolland to start crunch talks January 10, 2010 MARC Bolland will jet back early from holiday to have crunch talks with Wm Morrison about his departure date. Soon-to-be new employer Marks & Spencer wants him to start as chief executive as soon as possible but under the terms of his contract the Dutchman still has nine months notice to work. Morrison’s is believed [...]
Goodyear turns down Usmanov January 10, 2010 Charles “Chip” Goodyear, the former chief executive of FTSE 100 mining group BHP Billiton, has turned down a return to the sector with Metalloinvest – the steel group founded by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. Goodyear is understood to have been approached before Christmas but rejected an offer.
Outlook continues to present challenges for retail January 10, 2010 In a bout of not-particularly-investigative journalism, I set Tesco a mystery shopper challenge last week, ordering a hefty shop be delivered to my home just as the heaviest snow was due to fall. Right on time two cheerful chaps showed up without even a word of complaint about the weather. Impressive. We’ll have to wait [...]
Peacocks fashion expansion after strong Christmas trade January 10, 2010 Budget fashion chain Peacocks added to signs of a robust Christmas for Britain’s retailers, helped by its tie-up with singer-turned-designer Pearl Lowe, and yesterday said it planned to step up its expansion. The firm, taken private in 2005 by a consortium including US hedge funds Perry Capital and Och-Ziff, said sales at stores open at [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW DO YOU EXPECT TESCO TO HAVE PERFORMED THIS TIME? January 10, 2010 JONATHAN PRITCHARD | ORIEL SECURITIES I see the figures being as much as four per cent up on last year. The Clubcard doubling of points has made a big difference and I cannot see any reason why the figures should not follow the trend of Sainsbury’s and be significantly up. KEITH BOWMAN | HARGREAVES LANSDOWN [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 10, 2010 TED BAKER Singer Capital maintains a “buy” rating for Ted Baker after strong trading from 1 November to 24 December. Retail sales growth for this period was 19.1 per cent and trading was up 14.3 per cent year-on-year. It says Ted Baker’s collections are doing well and has revised its target price from 505p to [...]
E-book readers, 3D TVs and tablet PCs compete to be top dog of 2010 January 10, 2010 HYPE and prototypes dominated the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week. From the Ford car that lets you send Twitter messages while driving, to the scuba diving mask that can shoot high definition video at depths of 130 feet, the vast majority of products on display will not hit the mainstream. The [...]
New Year has positive start with surge on stocks January 10, 2010 Stocks have begun 2010 with a bullish surge, and even after Friday’s employment data from the US revealed a surprising drop for December, we should see a broad appetite for risk get us off to a positive start to this week. GFT is calling the UK’s FTSE 100 index to open up 11 points at [...]
Retail is a sell as customers desert the UK’s high streets January 10, 2010 THE BRITS lived up to their reputation as a nation of spenders and splashed their cash with abandon over the festive period. Major retailers swept up and some, like fashion chain Ted Baker, saw sales rise 20 per cent in the latter part of 2009. John Lewis, Next, Marks & Spencer and J Sainsbury also [...]