Retail sales fall dampens hopes of festive boost December 17, 2009 The Christmas shopping season has got off to a slow start, with retailers reporting a fall in sales volumes in November, dampening hopes of a bumper festive period on the high street. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that retail sales volumes unexpectedly fell by 0.3 per cent in November. Department stores [...]
JJB sales plunge 52% in “difficult” trading December 17, 2009 JJB sports has reported a 52 per cent plunge in sales in the past six months, with the Christmas season failing to reverse its fortunes. The struggling sports retailer has been trying to stage a fight back after it came close to going into administration earlier in the year. But the latest gloomy figures have [...]
BA in fresh talks with its unions December 16, 2009 BRITISH Airways (BA) will find out today whether its bid to block a devastating 12-day Christmas strike in the courts has been successful. The decision comes after the airline reopened talks with its unions yesterday, following the admission by Unite boss Derek Simpson that the length of the strike was “over the top”. Bruce Carr [...]
Eurostar train drivers set to strike on Friday over wages December 16, 2009 British train drivers on Eurostar services will strike on Friday and Saturday over pay, but the company yesterday said it expected no disruption for pre-Christmas travellers. Eurostar trains link London to Paris and Brussels and the coming few days are usually among the busiest of the year ahead of the Christmas holiday. A spokesman for [...]
Where the smart money should be heading next year December 16, 2009 AT THE start of 2009, there was a very real chance that we would enter another Great Depression and the banking system was still on its knees. But the past 12 months have been an astonishing year in the markets – stock market indices have risen sharply beyond all expectations and major countries returned to [...]
SOVEREIGN SCORES A COUP AS IT NETS BANK GRANDEE BOB WIGLEY December 16, 2009 MY MY , but hasn’t it been an eventful few months for Aim-listed home equity release firm Sovereign Reversions? Back in August, Countrywide chairman Harry Hill and a couple of fellow dissident shareholders caused a touch of controversy by trying to oust Sovereign’s board and put the company into run-off by sending out pre-ticked proxy [...]
What to read this Christmas December 16, 2009 Thrillers THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST BY STIEG LARSSON Maclehose, £18.99 The third and final novel in the late Swedish crime writer’s hugely popular Millennium Trilogy – all three books have been published posthumously. Computer hacker and investigator Lisbeth Salander’s third outing is no less electrifying than the previous two, as she tries [...]
BA SUES UNION OVER XMAS STRIKE CRISIS December 15, 2009 BELEAGUERED airline British Airways (BA) is taking legal action against the Unite union in a desperate bid to prevent cabin crew from striking over the peak Christmas period, it said yesterday. Thousands of cabin crew voted to walk out for 12 days from 22 December earlier this week, in the latest blow to an airline [...]
Fears over Greek and Austrian banks send FTSE shares down December 15, 2009 Britain’s leading share index shed 0.6 per cent yesterday, snapping a three-session rally with banks hit by some renewed sector caution, while oils and miners fell as a strengthening dollar weighed on metal prices. At the close, the FTSE 100 was 29.57 points lower at 5,285.77 after having gained one per cent on Monday to [...]
Supermarkets score for both value and reputation December 15, 2009 In the highly-competitive world of supermarkets, there are two basic types of brand: those which are “cheap and cheerful”, which focus on low cost while maintaining reasonable quality; and those which cost more but make a feature of the higher quality products. These show up very clearly in the respective average BrandIndex scores from the [...]