J Sainsbury sales growth slows down October 7, 2009 J SAINSBURY, hot on the heels of supermarket archrival Tesco, yesterday revealed that its second quarter sales growth had slowed as food inflation eased in the autumn. Sainsbury’s said like-for-like sales growth, excluding fuel, slowed to 4.6 per cent rise for the 16 weeks to 3 October down from seven per cent in the previous [...]
Shop prices fall further as high street struggles October 6, 2009 SHOP prices recorded another fall in September compared to a year ago, as the high street continues to suffer from consumers tightening their purse-strings in the downturn. Overall shop prices fell 0.1 per cent over the month, having already fallen 0.1 per cent in August, the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index (SPI) shows today. But though [...]
Tesco set to report slower sales growth October 4, 2009 TESCO, Britain’s biggest retailer, is set to report slower underlying UK sales growth than rival J Sainsbury for the fifth quarter in a row this week, alongside a small rise in first-half profit. But analysts expect Tesco to flag a stronger second-half profit performance, and some see signs it is beginning to close the gap [...]
Sterling will remain weak, and that’s a good thing too September 29, 2009 YOU’D need to have been living on a desert island not to have noticed the beating that sterling has taken lately. The pound has lost nearly a quarter of its value in the last two years, but saw the losing streak gather pace in the last week. True to form, that was accompanied by an [...]
HOW WOULD YOU RATE WM MORRISON’S PERFORMANCE? September 10, 2009 NICK BUBB PALI INTERNATIONALThe results were in-line with expectations, but that shouldn’t take anything away from what was a very good performance. Dare I say it, it was better than Sainsbury’s. The stores they bought from the Co-operative Group opened earlier than expected, and that bodes well for the longer-term push into smaller stores. SAM [...]
THE LONDON REPORT September 8, 2009 BRITAIN’S top share index rose for a third straight session yesterday, buoyed by the return of M&A activity and supported by hawkish economic data and with heavyweight mining. Energy stocks lead the gainers. The FTSE 100 closed 14.16 points higher, or 0.3 per cent, at 4,947.34, hitting a fresh highest closing level in 11 months. [...]
Britons more bullish on jobs and outlook September 8, 2009 BRITISH consumers are more confident about the future economic situation and sentiment about the present has also improved, the Nationwide consumer confidence survey will say today. The survey indicates that all the confidence indices rose during August with the expectations index rising by three points to 94. The present situation index, which has generally been [...]
Inflation rate holds steady but will drop August 18, 2009 INFLATION unexpectedly held steady in July, as rises in the prices of games, toys and hobbies offset falls in the cost of food and drinks. But economists warned that deflation still looms. The Office for National Statistics said that the consumer price index (CPI) – the government’s preferred measure – was unchanged from June, keeping [...]
Budget goods boost Asda’s market share August 13, 2009 WAL-MART owned Asda yesterday said it was stealing market share from other supermarkets as customers shopped around for low prices during the downturn. Asda said over three months to 31 July it had grown its market share of the grocery sector to 17 per cent, up from 16.7 per cent the quarter before. Tesco continues [...]
Careful not to cut spending too soon August 11, 2009 ANOTHER day and further signs there is some life left in the poor battered UK economy.. Yesterday it emerged that house prices rose for the third month in a row in June, according to government figures. And takeovers are back, it would seem, with the blue-chip insurer Friends Provident succumbing to an increased £1.85bn bid [...]