Calm before the storm: The pound is back below $1.24 on Hillary Clinton hopes, as the FTSE 100 remains flat November 8, 2016 After an encouraging beginning to the week, the pound fell below the $1.24 mark this morning as the dollar strengthened on hopes of a Hillary Clinton win in today's US Presidential election. Having peaked at $1.2439 in early trading, the pound edged into the red in the early afternoon, dropping as low as $1.2388, 0.1 [...]
Marks and Spencer’s profits plunge in first half as it announces plans to pull out of ten international markets November 8, 2016 Marks & Spencer has unveiled plummeting profits for the 26 weeks to 1 October, once again blaming its struggling clothing arm for dragging on the rest of the business, and outlined plans to close 60 stores. The figures Group revenue was up by 0.9 per cent to £4.99bn from £4.95bn in the first half of last [...]
M&S is braced for tumbling profits with boss Steve Rowe set to announce raft of store closures November 6, 2016 Marks & Spencer is braced to unveil tumbling profits in its interim results on Tuesday. Profit before tax is expected to have dropped by over 20 per cent to £216m according to analyst consensus, showing the scale of the challenge chief executive Steve Rowe faces. Clothing and home sales, which are measured at stores open for [...]
M&S to close dozens of stores November 4, 2016 Marks & Spencer will be closing dozens of UK stores and will cut its clothing offer in others, it's been claimed. Following reports from Bloomberg that M&S will be closing its Paris store and shops in China, Sky News has said that M&S boss Steve Rowe will announce UK store closures next week. It is expected that [...]
M&S retail boss wrote to former chancellor George Osborne to defend benefit cuts for staff November 4, 2016 M&S management wrote to former chancellor George Osborne this summer as the business was under siege for cutting staff benefits. In an internal memo seen by City A.M., the retail director of M&S, Sacha Berendji, told staff he wrote to Osborne responding to criticism about cutting premium pay rates for staff. Read more: M&S shells out £100m for pension changes [...]
M&S’ Brexit: Marks and Spencer to close its Paris flagship store October 26, 2016 Marks and Spencer is planning to shut its flagship store in Paris, according to reports. The British retailer wants to scale back its international operations to save on costs, Bloomberg has reported. Read more: MPs call for debate on "loopholes" in national living wage legislation The decision will be formally announced by chief executive Steve Rowe [...]
Greggs sausage rolls up the leaderboard in hospital food poll October 22, 2016 A ranking of the healthiest providers of hospital food revealed that one of the nation's favourite bakeries was narrowly pipped to the top spot. The "Healthy Hospital Food: 2016 Brand League Table" compared the performance of how well companies meet NHS England targets on healthy checkouts, food advertising and price promotions in hospitals. Although the Royal Voluntary Service and [...]
The digital media innovators of tomorrow are taking disruption to the next level October 21, 2016 When Jill Lepore, critiquing Clayton Christensen's The Innovator’s Dilemma in the New Yorker, queried his theory of disruptive innovation ("disrupt, and you will be saved"), some commentators felt she had a point. But a theory of change proposed by Christensen back in 1997, the idea that companies will fail if they do not disrupt themselves, [...]
City A.M. Unregulated podcast: Smoothie operator – meet the man behind the Nutribullet October 19, 2016 Gordon Black is the man behind best-selling clean eating craze the Nutribullet – and the richest retail tycoon you've never heard of. He joins the team from Yorkshire to tell the story of his family's business, Peter Black, and explain how it became one of Marks & Spencer's largest suppliers – as well as when to keep a business in the family, and [...]
Why is good behaviour in business such a radical idea? October 19, 2016 One of the most significant passages of Theresa May’s wide-ranging speech at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month criticised selfish bosses, rigged markets and dysfunctional businesses. Calling for a new spirit of citizenship, the Prime Minister highlighted a rogues’ gallery of those companies who refused to play by the rules, infuriated their customers and [...]