Tesco doubles dividend as profits surge 30 per cent after turnaround success April 10, 2019 Tesco boosted profits by almost 30 per cent in 2018 as it beat expectations, leading the supermarket to almost double its dividend as its chief executive revealed the supermarket has met the “vast majority” of its turnaround goals since its 2014 accounting scandal. The figures Pre-tax profits rose 28.8 per cent year on year to [...]
Lloyds Bank stars as FTSE 100 rockets in Q1 April 9, 2019 By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. After a great first quarter for stock markets, we assess the best and worst blue-chips of 2019 so far. It’s been a storming start to 2019 for the FTSE 100 index, with popular interactive investor stocks including Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY), Next (LSE:NXT) and Tesco (LSE:TSCO) among those on [...]
Discounter Aldi ramps up market share as Easter approaches April 2, 2019 Cut-price supermarket Aldi continued its rise up the grocery food chain in March, achieving a record market share of eight per cent as it made ground on its rivals. The German-owned chain’s sales increased by 10.6 per cent in the 12 months to 24 March compared to a year earlier, pushing its market share up [...]
The Matrix was released 20 years ago – how close are we to the film’s vision of a tech dystopia? April 1, 2019 The Matrix first premiered in US cinemas yesterday 20 years ago. It revolutionised the way that we viewed the potential power of machines, and simultaneously marked the dawning of an age of suspicion and fear surrounding our relationship with technology. Yet far from the apocalyptic fears of artificial intelligence (AI), the applications of this emerging [...]
Ex-Uber boss Travis Kalanick’s new venture snaps up UK ‘dark kitchens’ business March 26, 2019 The food delivery company run by Travis Kalanick snapped up London ‘dark kitchens’ firm Foodstars last year, as the former Uber boss looks to expand his new venture in the UK. City Storage Systems, which trades as Cloud Kitchens in the US, quietly bought the startup up last year, according to documents filed to Companies House. [...]
Ocado strikes factory deal with Australian grocer Coles a month after £1.5bn Marks & Spencer tie-up March 26, 2019 Ocado has agreed a deal to provide two robot-operated fulfillment centres for Australian grocer Coles Online, as it doubles down on its growing role as a retail technology supplier. Read more: Ocado shares burn after 48-hour blaze at robotics centre The online supermarket will build and operate the customer fulfillment centres in Sydney and Melbourne, [...]
John Lewis tumbles down UK top employer rankings March 26, 2019 John Lewis and Partners has lost its crown as Britain’s top employer following a tough 2018 that saw its profits drop by 45 per cent, according to a yearly survey released today. Read more: John Lewis profits plummet 45 per cent in ‘challenging’ market Wren Kitchens now tops the list of UK employers as ranked [...]
Dogs of the Footsie 2019: 10 shares yielding 6 per cent plus March 23, 2019 By David Budworth from interactive investor. Here are the 10 high yielders that make it into this year's Dogs of the Footsie investment strategy. It's time to reset our Dogs of the Footsie portfolio, selecting the 10 highest-yielding shares of the FTSE 100 index. Around half of 2018's portfolio is carried over on to this [...]
Andover fire burns revenue at Ocado March 19, 2019 Ocado’s Andover factory fire will hurt first quarter sales, the retailer warned today, adding that it will continue to impact sales in the months to come. The three-day blaze destroyed one of Ocado’s flagship robotic distribution centres and sent shares down 12 per cent in early February. Today the firm revealed revenue grew 11.2 per [...]
30 years since the dawn of the World Wide Web, Britain is still at the heart of tech success March 12, 2019 It has been 30 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee sat down at his desk at Cern and changed the world with a humble sounding document called “Information Management: A Proposal”. The memo, piloting a system to allow computers to share information via an emerging technology called hypertext, did not catch many people’s eyes as it [...]