It doesn’t get more central than The Beecham in Covent Garden November 27, 2014 Covent Garden, that stretch of meandering streets off The Strand that culminates in the famous piazza, has been through every stage of London life. It started out, as many of the City’s suburbs did, as countryside, serving as gardens for Westminster Abbey. Then came its first gentrification phase when Henry VIII seized the land [...]
Poundland’s quids in with 11.7 per cent rise in profits November 27, 2014 Shares in discount retailer Poundland edged 3.7 per cent higher to just under 314p after it posted a 11.7 per cent rise in pre-tax profits, which hit £9.3m in the six months to the end of September. Sales rose 15 per cent to £528.2m, while net debt fell 83 per cent to £4.4m, as it [...]
Retailers set for bumper sales this Christmas November 26, 2014 RETAIL sales stood firm in November while firms expected business to speed up as Christmas nears. Of the 130 retail companies surveyed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), 44 per cent said sales volumes were up on the year in November, while 17 per cent said they had fallen, giving a difference, or net [...]
John Lewis Christmas ad crooner Tom Odell launches London City Island dream of Irish billionaire Sean Mulryan November 26, 2014 London had a taste of Manhattan-style island life last night, as Irish billionaire Sean Mulryan and his property firm Ballymore launched its new 12-acre island neighbourhood, City Island, across from Canning Town. There are 1,700 new properties going up for sale on City Island, and no doubt Mulryan was hoping some of the [...]
2014 Black Friday to push UK Christmas spend to £91bn November 26, 2014 Half of Britain’s shoppers are set to storm online stores, shopping centres and supermarkets tomorrow in what is expected to be one of the biggest shopping occasions of the year. Some 47 per cent of shoppers are preparing to take part in Black Friday, which is expected to help push the UK’s Christmas spending up [...]
Black Friday and Cyber Monday: The luxe online shops changing how we consume November 26, 2014 Millions of pounds are set to be spent online during the two biggest dates in the retail calendar – Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We round up some of the luxury fashion sites where an increasing proportion of that money is spent. Welcome to the new digital high street. LYST lyst.com Lyst [...]
Black Friday 2014: From Uranium ore to free guns – five of the weirdest US Black Friday deals November 26, 2014 The US takes its Christmas shopping seriously. Black Friday, the day US shoppers traditionally pull themselves out of their Thanksgiving-induced food comas and hit the high street, was worth $12.3bn (£7.8bn) last year. And while some of the discounts retailers make to entice shoppers are pretty extreme (Walmart, for instance, is selling iPads for $199, [...]
Report: Regulation will not be enough to save our retail banking sector – it might need a complete restructure November 26, 2014 Tighter regulation won't be enough save Britain's retail banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis, according to experts involved in an investigation into the sector's decline. Conducted by the think tank New City Agenda and CASS Business School, the report reveals how the UK's four main retail banks are continuing to lose customer [...]
Banks will take a generation to fix “toxic and aggressive” culture November 26, 2014 British retail banking has a "toxic" and "aggressive" culture that will take a generation to fix, a new report has said. The report into the culture of British retail banking, by think tank New City Agenda and Cass Business School, found bad behaviour had cost the industry £38.5bn in fines and compensation over the past [...]
French market woes weigh on Kingfisher profit November 25, 2014 NO AMOUNT of DIY could help fix Kingfisher’s sales performance in the third quarter as France’s weak consumer economy continued to weigh on Europe’s largest home improvement retailer. Kingfisher posted a 3.6 per cent drop in sales to £2.8bn, saying the weak French market, where it traded as Castorama and Brico Depot, had offset a [...]