Barbie back in fashion at 50 January 12, 2010 FASHIONISTA Barbie has wowed a new generation of doll lovers, helping Mattel find a return to strong sales for the 50-year-old iconic toy. Mattel, the world’s leading toymaker, said yesterday it sold “more than hundreds of thousands” of the doll over the Christmas season after her fashion makeover. The sales surge follows a reported decline [...]
Retail reporting bonanza set to reveal festive cheer January 12, 2010 TOMORROW promises a reporting bonanza, with Christmas updates expected to reveal robust trading over the festive season. Home Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, is expected to reveal an increase in their 2009/2010 profit forecast after sales growth last year. Meanwhile Halfords, HMV, Mothercare, Premier Oil and Premier Foods, the UK’s largest food producer, [...]
Game Group issues profit warning January 12, 2010 COMPUTER games retailer Game Group yesterday cut its full-year profit forecast following poor Christmas sales, which were hit by growing supermarket competition and a slowing video games market. The results bucked the trend elsewhere for healthy festive spending. A survey showed British retailers enjoyed the biggest rise in total sales in a December since 2005. [...]
Disappointing results from Alcoa rock mining stocks January 12, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed 0.7 per cent lower yesterday as commodities and banks led the retreat over concerns that China’s move to tighten banks’ reserve requirements may slow global economic recovery. The FTSE 100 index closed down 39.36 points at 5,498.71, dropping back after hitting a 16-month intraday peak at 5,600.48 on Monday. China’s [...]
Waitrose and Sainsbury’s boost their brands January 12, 2010 RETAILERS have had a bumper Christmas according to the British?Retail?Consortium, but here is my review of 2009 as far as supermarkets are concerned. Graph 1 shows the share of total attention that each of the six received on BrandIndex. Over the course of 2009, Aldi and Asda dropped, Tesco and Morrison’s stayed steady, and Waitrose [...]
Even in 2010, some gay lawyers say coming out can damage your career January 12, 2010 AN article counselling young gay lawyers on the tricky matters of etiquette for coming out at work includes the following advice: “Do take your significant other to the firm’s Christmas party… probably best to avoid getting heroically drunk and snogging to slow numbers”. Perhaps it’s no surprise that it has proved a controversial New Year [...]
Tesco sales surge after Clubcard bonus January 12, 2010 TESCO has had its best Christmas in three years after slashing prices and offering double Clubcard points to get customers through the door. Britain’s biggest supermarket chain reported that like-for-like sales at its UK stores jumped by 4.9 per cent during December and early January. Tesco saw a 35 per cent surge in sales of [...]
Debenhams sees slim sales rise January 12, 2010 DEBENHAMS has reported a marginal rise in Christmas trading figures – and vowed to step up its store refit scheme. The chain said the 0.1 per cent rise in like-for-like sales for the 18 weeks to 2 January was in line with internal forecasts. Debenhams said growth was limited by its decision to move away [...]
High street celebrates Xmas boost January 11, 2010 SNOWY weather and economic gloom could not deter British shoppers from hitting the high streets in their droves last month, giving retailers their best December performance in four years, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Total retail sales values increased by an astonishing six per cent last month on December 2008 and 5.4 [...]
McDonald’s names new COO January 11, 2010 Burger behemoth McDonald’s has promoted US president Don?Thompson to the global role of chief operating officer. Thompson, 42, succeeds Ralph Alvarez, who retired after Christmas due to ill health. CEO Jim Skinner said the appointment demonstrated the company’s “deep bench of talented executives”.