Asda boss Andy Clarke’s 4 top leadership tips February 5, 2014 Speaking last night at the British Retail Consortium’s Future Retail Leader’s event, Asda chief executive Andy Clarke gave an account of his journey to the top – starting with the day he left school with just one O Level in English at 15. Realising he had spent too much time on the rugby pitch in [...]
Ocado founder Gissing to leave as sales increase February 4, 2014 OCADO’s Jason Gissing is to step down, leaving chief executive Tim Steiner as the only co-founder still at the grocer, which posted sales growth of 15 per cent yesterday. Despite growing revenues, the firm suffered a pre-tax loss of £12.5m for the year to 1 December, compared with £600,000 the previous year. The group said [...]
Bottom Line: Ocado profits set to come in the nick of time February 4, 2014 OCADO’S detractors are starting to wear a little thin. For three-and-a-half years – since its market debut in July 2010 at 180p – investors have mostly stuck around as the price fluctuated between 54p to recent record highs close to 10 times that. For the most part, the upward trajectory has been uninterrupted since Sir [...]
Sainsbury’s shares are jumping this morning. Here’s why February 4, 2014 Sainsbury’s shares have climbed over two per cent this morning after Bernstein Research upgraded the supermarket's stock this morning to ‘outperform’. Shares took a tumble last week after chief executive Justin King announced he's leaving. The initial five per cent drop (shares later stabilised) was a nod to King's performance – he's widely hailed for [...]
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 [...]