Property to join milk on sale at grocer Morrison March 10, 2014 SUPERMARKET chain William Morrison is this week set to sweeten its drop in profits with a property sell-off that could raise £500m for investors. The grocery giant, which has already said its Christmas sales were disappointing, is forecast to report annual pre-tax profits of between £734m and £805m, down from £879m in 2013 and the [...]
PLC awards 2014 and the winners are… March 6, 2014 …THE LIST IN FULL COMPANY OF THE YEAR Xaar ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR Julian Dunkerton, Supergroup NEW COMPANY OF THE YEAR Merlin Entertainments TURNAROUND OF THE YEAR Thomas Cook Group FUND MANAGER OF THE YEAR Mike Prentis, Blackrock ACHIEVEMENT IN SUSTAINABILITY Thomas Cook Group BEST PERFORMING SHARE AWARD Ocado BEST INVESTOR COMMUNICATION IP Group BEST TECHNOLOGY [...]
City Moves for 5 March 2014 | Who’s switching jobs March 4, 2014 DAC Beachcroft The law firm has announced the appointment of Ruth Connorton as a commercial contracts partner. She specialises in non-contentious procurement matters. Connorton joins from Eversheds, where she was head of procurement law. Ashburton Investments The investment management firm has appointed Swati Jain to its London-based distribution team. She was most recently at IIFL Wealth, where [...]
Tesco slashed the price of milk. Here’s how dairy farmers have responded March 3, 2014 Dairy farmers have accused Tesco of sparking a price war with its supermarket rivals that will cause further damage to an already fragile dairy industry, after the retail giant slashed the price of milk. Britain’s biggest food retailer delivered a fresh broadside in the battle for customers’ loyalty after cutting the price of a four [...]
Sainsbury’s online boss promoted February 27, 2014 Sainsbury’s has promoted the head of its £1bn online business Jon Rudoe to the operating board, as the supermarket chain ramps up its online efforts. Sainsbury’s said the move reflected “the rapidly growing importance of online and digital sales channels,” with Rudoe taking over all responsibility for IT. Before joining Sainsbury’s in 2011 Rudoe was [...]
Here’s what 3 banks are saying about Tesco’s latest turnaround plan February 26, 2014 Tesco’s shares are down more than four per cent, after the supermarket chain scrapped its profit margin target and laid out plans to invest in lowering its prices, prompting analysts cuts their ratings and price targets. Deutsche Bank cut its earning before interest and tax (EBIT) forecast of a £50m decline in the year to [...]
Tesco retreats as Clarke puts the brakes on February 25, 2014 Supermarket pulls out of the space race with plans to slash spending and cut prices TESCO’S chief executive pledged yesterday to put the brakes on its UK expansion and spend £200m slashing prices as Britain’s biggest grocer seeks to revive sales and win back falling market share. Speaking at an investor conference, Philip Clarke laid [...]
Bottom Line: Family will struggle to get backers to bite February 12, 2014 INVESTORS in Morrisons clearly aren’t convinced that a private equity prince is waiting in the wings ready to swoop with a buyout offer for the struggling supermarket. After an initial leap upwards – recovering little of the downwards slump it has seen over the past two year – shares closed just 0.25 per cent higher, [...]
Ocado co-founder Jason Gissing offloads 3m shares worth £15m February 6, 2014 OCADO’S outgoing commercial director and co-founder Jason Gissing sold shares worth £15m on the day that the online grocer announced full-year losses of £12.5m. Gissing, who announced on Tuesday that he would be leaving the company, sold just over three million shares on the same day at 498.75p each, reducing his stake by 0.52 per [...]
Ocado co-founder offloads 3m shares after losses shock February 6, 2014 After the grocer suffered pre-tax losses of £12.5m in the year to 1 December, co-founder and director Jason Gissing has sold over 3m shares. Gissing is a founding director, and yesterday it was announced that he would step down, leaving chief executive Tim Steiner as the only remaining co-founder at the company. Steiner said that [...]