West End falls behind rest of capital July 18, 2010 LONDON’S West End has seen an upsurge in high-end purchases, though shops in the area have bounced back at a slower rate than the rest of the capital. June sales in the West End shops rose 10 per cent on last year, compared to a 14.4 per cent rise in London and a 1.2 per [...]
SuperGroup profit triples on expansion July 15, 2010 FASHION retailer SuperGroup’s full-year pre-tax profit soared to £22.46m from £7.59m last year. Group revenue for the 52 weeks ended 2 May, was up 83.1 per cent to £139.4m from £76.14m in the comparable period. The surge has been fuelled by the company’s Superdry label which has been sported by a host of celebrities including [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 15, 2010 DFS The sofa retailer, which was recently sold by founder Lord Kirkham to private equity group Advent International for £500m, has ended its search for a new chief executive. Ian Filby has thirty years of retail experience, including a recent stint working as interim chief executive at Nectar. He was also previously retail brand development [...]
SuperGroup profit soars July 15, 2010 FASHION retailer SuperGroup’s full-year pre-tax profit soared to £22.46m from £7.59m last year. Group revenue for the 52 weeks ended May 2, 2010 was up 83.1 per cent to £139.4m from £76.14m in the comparable period. The surge has been fuelled by the company’s Superdry label which has been sported by a host of celebrities [...]
Inflation: a crippling tax on savings July 13, 2010 INFLATION did fall in June but once again it was a case of too little, too late. Consumer price inflation (CPI)?dipped to 3.2 per cent, reflecting a slowdown in fuel costs; yet that remains higher than the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target (and 1-3 per cent band). The retail price index, the older, [...]
City property deals top £1bn during last quarter, thanks to foreign buyers July 12, 2010 OVERSEAS investors looking for stable assets ratcheted the value of commercial property deals in the City by 57 per cent to £1.1bn in the last quarter, according to research published yesterday. A further £1.1bn worth of property in the Square Mile and Docklands is under offer with sales set for the third quarter of 2010, [...]
Luxury shops in boost from Indian spend July 12, 2010 THE number of luxury goods purchased by Indian shoppers visiting the UK in June surged by 89 per cent compared with the same month last year, according to a retail survey. The figures, compiled through a poll of 15,000 businesses, reveals the extent to which high street spending is fuelled by foreign spending power. According [...]
SMEs will save the UK… but my kids are all learning Spanish just in case July 12, 2010 WOL KOLADE, managing partner at Isis, is worried. The future of private equity – and the UK economy as a whole – is at a turning point, he says, and he’s not sure which way things will go. And when Kolade worries, people should listen – he knows what he is talking about. He joined [...]
Lord Levene’s bank eyes up online assets July 11, 2010 LORD Levene and Sir David Walker’s new high street bank plans to scour the market for potential online banking acquisitions after initially launching a bid for a retail branch network. NewBank, which does not yet have an official name, is currently eyeing up state-owned assets put on the block by Lloyds Banking Group and Northern [...]
Battle of the banks July 8, 2010 SOME OF the City’s most powerful names are gearing up for an almighty bidding battle over state-controlled banking assets including Northern Rock and parts of Lloyds Banking Group. Lloyd’s of London chairman Lord Levene and City grandee Sir David Walker will take on Richard Branson’s Virgin money in a fight to create a new nationwide [...]