London Report: Lower crude prices pull FTSE down but Morrison’s gets lift September 9, 2014 BRITAIN’S top shares yesterday inched lower on Tuesday as energy stocks weakened and investors bet on whether Scotland would vote to leave the United Kingdom in the 18 September referendum. But stocks showed little reaction to comments by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who suggested the bank might start to raise interest rates next [...]
Co-operative Group hires City headhunters to find board members September 7, 2014 The Co-operative has kicked off its search for a new chair by appointing City headhunters Odgers Berndtson to grill potential applicants for the high profile role. The mutual, currently chaired by Co-op insider Ursula Lidbetter, is hunting for the first independent chairman in its 150-year history in the wake of radical governance reforms voted through [...]
City AM awards: Business of the Year nominees announced September 7, 2014 I have great pleasure in introducing the first of our shortlists for the annual City A.M. awards. As ever, the awards have attracted nominations from all sorts of diverse businesses and people who have done great things during the course of the past year, a year of recovery in the UK. We have taken on [...]
And the nominees are… September 7, 2014 TOMORROW: ACCOUNTANCY FIRM OF THE YEAR ALDI The German discounter has taken the British high street by storm. Aldi now has a 4.6 per cent share of the UK market, up more than one third in a year due to consumers choosing its quality and low prices over the more established retailers. It has even [...]
Theatre review: Little Revolution September 4, 2014 ★★★★ Is there anything left to say about the riots? Despite the avalanche of think-pieces chewing over possible causes – from the left: poverty, racism, a lack of opportunities; from the right: irresponsibility bred by welfarism and failures in state education – no one provided a wholly satisfactory diagnosis. The riots were simply too big, [...]
Queens Park Rangers’ £6bn west London revamp to create homes, jobs and a new stadium September 3, 2014 A vast area of west London looks set to undergo a massive regeneration programme that could see 24,000 homes being built and 55,000 new jobs created. Hundreds of acres of brownfield around Old Oak Common, near the site of Wormwood Scrubs prison, could be transformed as a result. The £6.2bn plan is being spearheaded by [...]
London Report: Mining shares lift FTSE despite doubt over ECB September 2, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index steadied near a two-month high yesterday, with some caution before the European Central Bank’s policy meeting tomorrow offsetting a rally in miners prompted by stronger metals prices. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended 0.06 per cent higher at 6,829.17 points after rising up to 6,849.28 points, the highest level since early [...]
Carve Tesco into three, says former director August 26, 2014 A former Tesco executive has called for the business to be radically restructured by its incoming boss, creating three separate entities. Bruno Monteyne, an analyst at Bernstein Research and previously Tesco.com's development director, has argued that carving the supermarket up could be the only way to halt its decline. He suggests dividing it [...]
Lidl clothing range: Discount retailer challenges British supermarkets on fashion front August 20, 2014 Not content with challenging big British supermarkets on food prices, discount favourite Lidl is taking the stores on in the fashion stakes. The German retailer is about to launch a fashion range for women that includes jeans, shoes and even leather jackets, with a men's range to follow later this year. From August 25th shoppers [...]
How to make the most of weekends August 18, 2014 Highly successful people seek inspiration, think long term and don’t waste the last 15 hours. It's tempting to imagine that successful businesspeople see the weekend as an extension of the working week – a time for catching up on emails, reading market reports and troubleshooting process documents. Not so, according to time management expert [...]