Greggs appoints Punch Taverns head as new chief executive January 24, 2013 Bakery chain Greggs has appointed the chief executive of Punch Taverns as its new head, to take over from Ken McMeikan. Roger Whiteside, chief executive of the pub group, will take up the role with effect from 4 February. He has been a non-executive director of Greggs since 2008. Aside from Punch Taverns, Whiteside has [...]
Sir Stuart Rose takes the hot seat at Ocado January 22, 2013 SIR STUART Rose, the former boss of Marks & Spencer, is to become chairman of Ocado, in a major coup for the online retailer. The company said Sir Stuart is to replace Sir Michael Grade after its annual general meeting in May. Grade, best known for his roles at ITV and Channel Four, will be [...]
Sir Stuart’s in line for a shelf stacking role January 22, 2013 SIR STUART ROSE’S retail track record stretches as far back as the 1970s, when he was known to sweep the warehouse floors during his time as a management trainee at Marks & Spencer. Since then his career has taken in shelf stacking, pyjama folding and clothes hanging before he took the top job at Marks [...]
FTSE 100 dragged down by Pearson and Fresnillo January 22, 2013 The FTSE 100 was trading modestly down this morning, although it was still near its highest level in four and a half years. On the blue chip index, education giant Pearson continued its losses from yesterday and shed 2.33 per cent this morning. Yesterday it warned that annual profits would be lower than expected amid [...]
Sir Stuart Rose appointed new Ocado chairman January 22, 2013 Online grocer Ocado has appointed former Marks & Spencer chief executive Sir Stuart Rose as its new chairman. Sir Stuart will succeed Michael Grade as chairman following Ocado’s AGM in May. Rose, who has worked in the retail sector for 41 years, was chief executive of clothing and food retailer Marks & Spencer from 2004 [...]
City Moves for 22 January 2013 | Who’s switching jobs January 21, 2013 Mayer Brown The law firm has appointed Alistair Graham as a litigation partner in its London office. He joins from White & Case, where he was a partner in its London commercial litigation practice. Graham has previously worked as enforcement counsel to the FSA, where he assisted in the run up to the introduction of [...]
Primark helps boost AB Foods’ revenues January 17, 2013 PRIMARK, the budget clothing retailer, has outsmarted its rivals on the high street after reporting a 25 per cent increase in sales yesterday. Its parent company Associated British Foods (ABF) said the launch of 14 new stores in Spain, the UK, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands helped to lift sales in the 16 weeks to [...]
Fiasco over results tests M&S’s loyalty to Tulchan January 17, 2013 THERE is little more certain in life than this: one firm’s misfortune will be seized on by rivals desperate to take advantage of another’s woes. So it is that a host of financial public relation agencies have been bending the ears of Marks & Spencer executives to test the retailer’s loyalty to its incumbent agency [...]
Online shopping is masking the birth of hybrid retailers January 15, 2013 THE fall of yet another iconic British retailer, HMV, does little to assuage fears that the high street in its current form is in terminal decline. The statistics are bleak. According to a survey by PwC and the Local Data Company, 32 stores closed each day in July and August 2012. Over one gloomy five [...]
Little Christmas cheer for retail January 14, 2013 Chief Market Strategist, Cantor Index THE official retail activity figures, which are posted monthly or at specific times like Christmas, are accurate but often indecipherable to the layman. The small print is where the message is. And the most recent figures suggest that Christmas was great for some, but brutal for others. The situation was [...]