UK tills emptier despite purchases rising in June as shoppers enjoy falling prices July 23, 2015 Brits spent less money in shops in June as retail sales struggle to gain momentum, a new set of data shows. The amount of money spent dropped 0.1 per cent from May to June, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics yesterday. In the three months to the end of June, the [...]
Utopian Unilever is making waves: Boss Paul Polman is pushing an ethical agenda, but is it working? July 23, 2015 The website still exists but looks dated. SaveBenandJerrys.com, a grassroots campaign website with comic sans font, tried to stop ethical ice cream brand Ben and Jerry’s being scooped up by corporate giant Unilever in 2000. Yet 15 years after the consumer giant’s $326m takeover, the howls of protest appear a strange anachronism after moves [...]
Aberdeen weighs on FTSE after report of £9bn net outflow – London Report July 23, 2015 UK shares yesterday started brightly but fell for a third day in a row, as Aberdeen Asset Management weighed on the FTSE 100. The blue chip index fell 0.2 per cent, 12.33 points, to 6,655.01 at the close, after earlier climbing as much as 0.6 per cent. Aberdeen Asset Management tumbled 7.6 per cent, touching [...]
Lies, damned lies, and statistics: ONS’ retail sales are, at best, a partial truth and, at worst, misleading July 23, 2015 There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Nowhere is this truer than in the retail sales numbers reported each month by the ONS. The official statistics body for the UK is nothing if not thorough. Each month it presents more than 300 variants of the numbers, each using a different measure or examining a particular [...]
Pound falls after UK retail sales in June disappoint July 23, 2015 The pound fell 0.12 per cent against the dollar to $1.5595 after British retail sales unexpectedly tumbled in June amid broad-based declines in sales of food, household goods and petrol. Data released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed retail sales fell 0.2 per cent in June, down from 0.2 per cent growth a [...]
Surge for City spaces propels LandSec sales July 22, 2015 PROPERTY giant Land Securities said momentum continues to grow after logging strong annual results earlier this year, with healthy take-up in London, low vacancy rates and rising rental values. The FTSE 100 company yesterday said that of the 1.1m sq ft it had to rent in March, 22,000 sq ft had been let or was [...]
Houlihan Lokey buys boutique firm McQueen July 22, 2015 BOUTIQUE investment bank Houlihan Lokey has taken over London-based corporate advisory McQueen in a deal giving it a bigger presence in North America and London. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, will see McQueen’s 45 staff in London, New York, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco merge into Houlihan Lokey’s consumer team. McQueen is [...]
US existing home sales grow at fastest rate since before the financial crisis in 2007 July 22, 2015 Home resales in the US rose at their highest level for eight and a half years in June, giving a sign that demand is up, indicating a housing market recovery, which should help the economy. Sales increased 3.2 per cent to an annual rate of 5.49m houses from a downwardly revised 5.32m in May, the [...]
Supermarket wars: The Co-op Food is going on a hiring spree July 22, 2015 The Co-op is clearly feeling bullish about growth opportunities for its supermarket. Fresh from investing £125m to back its entry in the grocery price war, Co-operative Food has just announced plans to go on a hiring spree. The supermarket has committed to hiring a further 1,000 frontline staff to work in its convenience stores. [...]
Tesco’s Harris + Hoole coffee shops lose founders and bosses Nick, Andrew and Laura Tolley July 22, 2015 The founders and bosses of Harris + Hoole, the coffee shop chain part-owned by Tesco, are leaving the company amid the supermarket's asset sell off. The sibling founders Nick Tolley, Andrew Tolley and Laura Tolley, who are chief executive, coffee director and chief design officer respectively will depart next month, Retail Week reports, retaining their [...]