CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 11, 2011 KPMG KPMG has appointed Paul Sawdon as UK head of its internal audit practice. Sawdon has been a partner at KPMG for the past ten years, where he has worked on a variety of audit projects, including developing the firm’s extended assurance proposition. He takes over from David Defroand, who leaves to devote himself to [...]
Travelodge bets on convenience stores to spur £130m budget hotel expansion November 27, 2011 E-TILLS ARE RINGING FOR CYBER MONDAY TRAVELODGE has joined forces with Waitrose, the supermarket chain, to build three mixed use hotel and retail sites in a £27m scheme. The budget hotel chain said yesterday that it is also looking at 25 other sites next to big supermarkets in a £130m expansion that is expected to [...]
FTSE slump continues as Germany digs in November 25, 2011 THE FTSE 100 continued to fall this morning as Germany’s refusal to agree to a common Eurozone bond to shore up the bloc’s finances further drained investor confidence. London’s blue chip index posted its ninth successive day of falls yesterday and has dropped 7.5 per cent in the period – the longest losing streak since [...]
Watered-down soup sales hurting Campbell as competition mounts November 22, 2011 CAMPBELL Soup, the world’s largest soup maker, reported weak quarterly sales yesterday as higher prices at its US soup and international businesses put off price-conscious shoppers, sending its shares down five per cent. The company, whose US soup business has struggled with more competition, said quarterly sales in that business fell four per cent, hurt [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 15, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES HGCAPITAL IN TALKS TO BUY BACK IAS HgCapital, the mid-market private equity group, is in talks to buy back the main part of Iris Software Group four years after it sold the UK’s largest private business software maker to Hellman & Friedman. The buy-out house has approached its larger US rival with a [...]
Sales are strong at Asda but high fuel costs keeping shoppers away November 15, 2011 SUPERMARKET group Asda yesterday reported a pick up in third-quarter sales growth, helped by revamped own-brand food ranges and a pledge to be cheaper than rivals. Sales at stores open more than a year rose 1.3 per cent, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, in the three months to September, Britain’s second-biggest supermarket group said [...]
Wm Morrison warns Xmas will be tough November 10, 2011 WM MORRISON chief executive Dalton Philips warned of “a very tough Christmas” ahead, with consumer sentiment at its lowest in a generation, as the group posted a rise in its underlying sales. Philips said “people were being very frugal” but he expected this to play to Morrison’s strengths, as it continues to outperform it rivals [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW HAS MORRISONS FARED COMPARED TO ITS RIVALS? November 10, 2011 CLIVE BLACK | SHORE CAPITAL Morrison’s provides the market with the first official indication of supermarket trading momentum since Tesco UK introduced its ‘Big Price Drop’. Total sales from the Bradford based group…seem to have weathered the price cutting storm reasonably well with ex-fuel, ex-VAT sales up by 4.6 per cent. DAVE MCCARTHY | EVOLUTION [...]
Markets choppy on Eurozone fears November 10, 2011 The FTSE 100 opened down today as Italy’s deepening debt crisis threatened to topple the Eurozone and plunge the world economy into uncharted waters. The cost of borrowing on Italian government bonds jumped to seven per cent yesterday — a level considered unsustainable by economists. Italy today launches an auction of as much as €5bn [...]
Morrisons sales at top end of forecasts November 10, 2011 Wm Morrison confirmed its position as the fastest-growing of Britain’s top four supermarket groups on Thursday with a rise in third-quarter sales driven by a focus on fresh foods and low prices. The fourth-biggest grocer behind J Sainsbury, Wal-Mart’s Asda and market leader Tesco said sales at stores open a year rose 2.4 per cent [...]