Lingerie gets strict November 1, 2005 Want the Hitchcock Blonde look? No pain no gain In case you hadn’t noticed, this season’s must-have is a waist so small that it can be encircled by your dashing suitor’s hands. Suddenly, after hiding our lumps and bumps in a waft of gypsy inspired regalia, we are supposed to unearth the hourglass figure that [...]
In a flush on the fairway October 28, 2005 Card schools and golf clubs are big news for singles right now. Lorraine Adams holds the winning hand for a birdie Would you believe that the most sought-after events this year have been our poker nights and golf days? Even those who don’t know how to play poker or golf are desperate to buy up [...]
Rubies and icons come from Russia with love October 27, 2005 Annushka Ducas set up a jewellery company in 1990 to help her mother out with some cufflinks. Since then she and Links have come a long way. Annushka Ducas has come back from Russia with a jewellery collection. For a woman who wasn’t the founder of Links of London this would mean a major over-spend [...]
Amazon’s ebbs and flows October 27, 2005 The dotcom giant is at the forefront of growth in the online retail industry. Its sales have just kept on growing, hitting $1bn in America and Canada. But yet its share price has taken a tumble this week. Wall Street is always falling in and out of love with Amazon. In the online retailer’s 10-year [...]
Amazon profits hit by increased competition October 26, 2005 Amazon, the online bookseller, last night unveiled a $30m (£16.8m) profit for the third quarter. Some of the gloss was taken off increased sales, however, as it admitted that a patent dispute had cost it $20m. Seattle-based Amazon made a one-off payment to settle a patent lawsuit in the third quarter. Its profit, otherwise, would [...]
On top of the world October 21, 2005 Retail may be struggling, but Philip Green has just taken a £1bn dividend. Is he embarrassed? Not much. Displaying the timing for which he has become famous, retail entrepreneur Philip Green paid himself a whopping £1.2bn dividend from his retail chain Arcadia. At a time when retailers nationwide are struggling, Arcadia announced a 10.1 per [...]
FTSE falls to lowest level since July October 20, 2005 The FTSE fell to its lowest level since July as fears about rising interest rates wiped out value on stock exchanges across Europe. It emerged yesterday that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep British interest rates at 4.5 per cent. Analysts said that this signalled a rate cut to coincide with November’s [...]
US suffers shock inflation increase October 19, 2005 Inflation trends differed markedly on either side of the Atlantic yesterday, with the American producer prices (PPI) confounding analysts with their biggest gain in 15 years, but Britain got off lightly with a consumer price index (CPI) level of just 2.5 per cent. The American PPI shot up by 1.9 per cent on last month, [...]
Violet Hue October 18, 2005 Tchenguiz is the last man standing in the race for Somerfield. Another one bites the dust. Amid talk of a high-street bloodbath in the run-up to Christmas, Somerfield has joined the lengthening list of retailers opting to leave the glare of the stock market. Of course, the announcement surprised no one. Somerfield has been on [...]
WH Smith posts £73m profit October 14, 2005 Stationer WH Smith was the second high street institution to surprise the market this week with its turnaround progress. Chief executive Kate Swann followed Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose’s example as pre-tax profits came in at £73m for the year to 31 August. Although like-for-like sales fell 2 per cent during the past six [...]