Leading firms to pledge jobs January 9, 2011 TOP British business leaders will today pledge to create thousands of jobs in the UK. The heads of leading British firms will meet today with Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street to discuss job creation in the private sector. Representatives from supermarket giants Asda, J Sainsbury, Tesco and Wm Morrison will join Marks and [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 9, 2011 Wm Morrison The supermarket giant has appointed Belinda Youngs to the role of own brand director, as part of four new additions to its senior management team. Youngs joins from Canadian food retailer Sobeys, where she was chief marketing officer, and is tasked with developing Morrisons’ own brand into a market leader. She is joined by [...]
Tesco and Sainsbury’s boost UK market share January 9, 2011 THREE of the UK’s big four supermarket chains are reporting Christmas figures this week, with analysts expecting Tesco and J Sainsbury to have boosted their market share. Research company Kantar suggests that Sainsbury’s advanced its share of the British grocery market by 0.3 per cent to 16.4 per cent while Tesco saw a lift of [...]
Analyst views: What is the outlook for retailers’ figures this week? January 9, 2011 NICK BUBB | ARDEN “The resilience of trading at the premium end of the High Street, as evidenced by John Lewis, is still striking. Investors can’t buy shares in John Lewis, but they can buy shares in M&S, which is the best proxy for the strength of middle-class spending on food and clothing.” KEITH BOWMAN [...]
Online sales boost for House of Fraser January 9, 2011 UK department store House of Fraser saw same store sales jump 8.5 per cent in the five weeks to 8 January, reinforcing the success of multi-brand retailers over the Christmas period. It follows similar results last week from the John Lewis Partnership, which saw sales up 8.9 per cent compared to last year. But House [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD January 9, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● WM Morrison release its Christmas trading update today. ● Tomorrow the US National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon incident release their final report on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ● Marks & Spencer, the iconic British department store, will publish its third quarter interim management statement tomorrow. ● Supermarket [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 6, 2011 Syndicate Asset Management The fund management group has promoted Jeremy Rance to the role of chief operating officer for the group. He will now be in charge of organising operational performance across all of the group’s subsidiaries. He joined the company in June last year at its subsidiary Ashcourt Rowan, having previously worked at Barclays, [...]
Rose leaves M&S as new era begins January 4, 2011 SIR Stuart Rose said farewell to Marks & Spencer (M&S) yesterday, drawing to a close a colourful six years at the helm of the retailer. He formally hands over the reins of chairman to former City banker Robert Swannell today. Sir Stuart, 61, was hailed as an inspiration after steering M&S to a £1bn profit, [...]
Retailers hit back over BBC claims December 22, 2010 THE British Retail Consortium (BRC) has branded a withering attack on supermarket expansion broadcast on the BBC’s Panorama last night as “misleading”. Programme makers indicate that the UK’s major grocers are growing more quickly than ever, suggesting that one of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons effectively gets planning permission for a new store “every working [...]
Banks give FTSE a boost as pre-Christmas rally continues December 22, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index pushed higher yesterday, supported by gains from banks as reports China is ready to buy Portuguese bonds eased European debt concerns. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 31.69 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 5,983.49, edging ever closer towards the 6,000 level last seen in June 2008. The blue [...]