The Co-operative Group eyes sale of 300 food stores to focus on convenience April 13, 2016 Around 300 Co-operative food stores could face the axe as part of plans to shed its larger shops and focus on expanding its more profitable convenience business. The mutual, which has over 2,800 stores throughout the UK, is understood to have hired bankers at Rothschild to find buyers for the stores to help raise funds to spruce up the rest of its [...]
BrewDog: This well-known craft beer brewer doesn’t want to benefit from the ill-gotten gains of your filthy corporate greed April 13, 2016 BrewDog's bark against the big drinks industry just got louder. The fiercely independent, Aberdeen-based craft brewer amended its constitution so that it can never be sold to a "monolithic purveyor of bland industrial beer", at the company's AGM last weekend. BrewDog announced the motion in a blog post on its website in December 2015. Titled "Nailing [...]
JP Morgan’s profit has dipped though it has still managed to beat analyst expectations in the first quarter April 13, 2016 JP Morgan has surprised investors with its latest results coming in ahead of expectations. Overall profits came in at $1.35 a per share, on revenue of $24.1bn (£16.92bn). Analysts were expecting earnings per share of $1.24 on revenue of $23.80bn, according to a Bloomberg poll. This time last year JP Morgan, the largest bank in [...]
Groan. Here’s the definitive ranking of the world’s worst jobs April 13, 2016 We've all made bad choices in life, but some are worse than others. Thus, it is with great regret City A.M. is forced to report that newspaper reporter has, once again, topped a ranking of the world's worst jobs. We're just going to take a minute to digest that. The ranking, by CareerCast, blamed "low salary, [...]
House of Fraser posts first profit in a decade April 13, 2016 House of Fraser has posted a return to profit for the first time since 2006, as the venerable department store business goes from strength to strength under its Chinese parent. The figures Sales were up 4.2 per cent to £1.3bn for the year to 30 January, with online sales up 26.8 per cent. They now account [...]
Tesco drags Sainsbury’s and Morrisons share price down too April 13, 2016 Tesco might have hoped for a better reaction to its news that it has returned to profit this morning than for investors to send its share price tumbling. Perhaps it was the relatively cautious statement given by chief executive Dave Lewis, or the fact that while profits were above consensus expectations, sales missed by a touch. Or [...]
Tesco’s share price drops as supermarket misses sales forecasts but beats consensus on profit April 13, 2016 Tesco's share price fell 4.7 per cent on the open this morning, despite the supermarket returning to profit and sales growth. The supermarket was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 in early trading – and it was dragging some of its rival grocers down with it. [stockChart code="TSCO" date="2016-04-13 09:17"] The figures The troubled supermarket's [...]
Tesco’s share price has recovered this year as Dave Lewis implements his turnaround plan, but the preliminary results could affect sentiment April 13, 2016 When Dave Lewis took over as Tesco chief executive in September 2014, much was made of his nickname Drastic Dave, particularly as drastic measures were necessary to revive the group's flagging fortunes. Lewis was parachuted in from Unilever to turn around the Tesco juggernaut after a scandal that had seen the retailer overstate its profits. [...]
Furniture chain ScS narrows losses as sales heat up April 12, 2016 Furniture chain ScS said losses narrowed in the first half of the year as demand for its sofas and flooring reached a record high. The figures The retailer, which floated last year, said its like-for-like order intake – which reflects sales it has not yet booked – rose by 9.1 per cent in the six months [...]
Pound jumps against the dollar as UK inflation figures beat expectations in March April 12, 2016 The pound jumped against the dollar this morning, after UK inflation for March beat economists' expectations, data released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown. British consumer prices rose 0.5 per cent year-on-year in March, ahead of expectations for a 0.4 per cent increase, and up from 0.3 per cent a month earlier. Read more: Inflation basket [...]