Co-founder of Ocado steps down as the company reports £12.5m loss February 4, 2014 Online grocer Ocado has suffered a pre-tax loss of £12.5m for the year ended 1 December, despite increasing sales growth and the company’s deal with Morrison's last year to supply a new online service. Gross sales rose by 15 per cent to £843m, with new customer acquisitions up over 40 per cent on 2012. Analysts [...]
City Moves for 4 February 2014 | Who’s switching jobs February 3, 2014 Baker & McKenzie The law firm has announced the appointment of Julian Thurston as a consultant in its global pharmaceutical and healthcare industry group. He was most recently at Morrison & Foerster, where he was a consultant and partner specialising in commercial life sciences transactions. Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Barbara Rupf Bee has joined DeAWM as head of [...]
Ant and Dec help Morrisons to bring us mythical Market Street February 2, 2014 THERE appears to be no end to the amount of trendy food markets popping up in the capital – a bit of Borough here, Maltby Street there, a dash of Exmouth, etc. Well, now there’s a new one, brought to us by, erm, Morrisons and called, well, Market Street. The market is more of a [...]
London Report: Survey figures forecast to show more UK growth February 2, 2014 MANUFACTURING data, due out today, is the first of the UK survey figures that will be the highlights of this week’s economic calendar. Construction figures will follow tomorrow and services data on Wednesday, with all sectors expected to show further growth. Industrial production data is due on Friday. Martin Beck of Capital Economics said: “On [...]
Hedgies demand cashback from UK supermarkets January 26, 2014 BRITAIN’S biggest supermarkets are coming under pressure from a US hedge fund to split their vast property empire to drive up value for shareholders. Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are all being asked to replicate a model used by one of Canada’s largest supermarkets, Loblaw Companies, to put some of its property into a real estate [...]
Why Sainsbury’s is SocGen’s favourite supermarket January 22, 2014 When it came to supermarkets’ Christmas performance in the UK, the discounters claimed the victory. Aldi and Lidl saw sales leap, both increasing their market shares. It was good news for high-end store Waitrose, too, which also saw a bumper festive period. It’s the Big Four – or, at least, three of them (Tesco, Asda [...]
The Carl Icahn approach to investing just got more popular January 21, 2014 Call it the Carl Icahn-effect but hedge fund bosses who pressure company managers to do what they say are back in fashion with pension funds and well-heeled investors, new stats out today show. So-called activist hedge fund bosses – the type of investors currently stalking British supermarket Morrisons and train company FirstGroup – attracted more [...]
Morrisons’ tax boss arrested in watchdog probe January 20, 2014 MORRISONS’ treasurer and head of tax is under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for insider trading ahead of its £216m tie-up with Ocado last year, in yet another blow for the troubled supermarket. Paul Coyle was suspended from his post after being arrested in December in Harrogate by the Yorkshire police in connection [...]
Lugano rescues point on Mel’s debut January 20, 2014 DEFENDER Diego Lugano scored his first West Brom goal as new boss Pepe Mel oversaw a 1-1 draw with Everton last night. The Baggies fell behind on 41 minutes after Kevin Mirallas slotted in from Romelu Lukaku’s knock down. But on 75 minutes Lugano headed in James Morrison’s cross. Mel said: “I’m very happy to [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 20 January 2014 January 20, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES David Cameron faces EU isolation David Cameron risks “damaging Europe” with his anti-immigration stance, according to some of Britain’s allies, leaving the prime minister looking isolated in his attempts to restrict free movement in the EU. Ministers and officials from several EU powers told the Financial Times they would resist Mr Cameron’s attempts [...]