Mark Johnston’s Oriental to outfox them in Northumberland Plate June 26, 2014 ONE OF the great staying races of the calendar, the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle (3.50pm), is the feature tomorrow. I’m keen on the chances of ORIENTAL FOX to go one better than his short-head second last year and scoop the £86,226 prize for Mark Johnston and Joe Fanning. He has to carry top-weight but, in [...]
5 retailers who’ve suffered warehouse woes June 23, 2014 Retailers have had their fair share of misadventures with their warehouses in recent years. The fire at Asos’ distribution centre in Yorkshire is the second time the retailer has suffered damage to one of its warehouses. An explosion at the Buncefield oil depot near to its former site in Hemel Hempstead in 2005 [...]
Morrisons ramps up assault on rival supermarkets after slashing more prices June 23, 2014 Morrisons has launched a fresh round of price cuts today as the troubled supermarket group steps up its efforts to win back shoppers defecting to cheaper rivals. Britain’s fourth-largest grocer will cut the price of a further 135 grocery and household products today by an average 14 per cent. “These are permanent price cuts, not [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 19 June 2014 June 18, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES US share dividends hit record US share buybacks and dividend payments climbed to a record level in the first quarter of 2014, as companies chose to boost shareholder returns in the absence of robust revenue growth. Members of the S&P 500 index – led by Apple, IBM, ExxonMobil and FedEx – spent $241bn [...]
Supermarket Morrisons to cut 2,600 top jobs June 17, 2014 MORRISONS confirmed yesterday that it would be cutting 2,600 jobs in its stores in the UK, as it sought to simplify its management structure. The supermarket chain, which is currently ranked fourth by market share in the UK, said it has trialled the new management structure in some of its stores and it now aims [...]
FTSE 100: Shire and Morrison help index end on a high note June 17, 2014 Bid speculation surrounding pharma giant Shire, proposed cost savings at supermarket operator Wm Morrison and a strong update from Premier Inn-owner Whitbread yesterday helped lift the FTSE 100 index slightly. The bluechip index closed up 12.13 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 6,766.77. Shire jumped 3.5 per cent to 3,660p, providing the biggest boost for [...]
Retail insolvencies hit five-year high as corner shops squeezed June 16, 2014 RETAIL insolvencies have unexpectedly risen to their highest point in five years, as 1,287 businesses went under in England, Scotland and Wales in the last financial year. The figure, for the 12 months to the end of March, was up 12 per cent on the previous year’s 1,149 casualties, according to a report today from [...]
Bottom Line: As the going gets tough, Justin King gets going June 11, 2014 There was a lot of back-slapping at Sainsbury’s yesterday, with Justin King talking up his successor, and his successor lavishing praise on the soon-to-depart chief executive. “When Justin started at the business we were serving 14m customers a week, and now we’re serving 24m a week. That’s a great achievement,” enthused Mike Coupe. King insists the [...]
Pfizer blames price for Astrazeneca deal collapse June 11, 2014 Drug giant Pfizer yesterday said the £69bn bid to take over UK rival Astrazeneca collapsed due to price disagreements, as shares in the UK company rallied in the hope of a revival of talks. Pfizer finance chief Frank D’Amelio told a US healthcare conference yesterday that the two sides did not come to a deal [...]
Justin King’s final curtain: Sainsbury’s CEO goes out on sliding sales June 11, 2014 It is chief executive Justin King’s last set of results, and Sainsbury's has reported a 1.1 per cent fall in like-for-like sales – in line with expectations. Including fuel, they dropped 2.4 per cent in the 12 weeks to 7 June. But shares have risen by as much as two per cent this morning. Darren [...]