Poundland’s sales near £1bn May 8, 2014 CASH conscious shoppers continued to flock to Poundland for bargain buys last year, boosting the discount retailer’s sales to just under £1bn. The chain, which has benefited from the polarisation in spending in the market, opened a net 70 stores in the year to 30 March, helping to deliver £998m revenues, up 13.3 per cent [...]
How SMEs can drive growth from connected customers May 7, 2014 Small businesses must embrace new technology or risk being left behind RECENT technological advances, while enabling companies to be constantly connected to their customers and suppliers across a range of channels (driving both cost and productivity benefits), have also radically changed how consumers view firms. In one of the more obvious manifestations of the trend, [...]
Tesco to launch premium Hudl phone by Xmas May 6, 2014 TESCO yesterday announced that it would sell its own smartphone this year, following in the footsteps of its Hudl tablet last year. Tesco’s chief executive Philip Clarke, speaking on BBC Radio 5 yesterday morning, revealed the grocer’s plan to release a premium Hudl smartphone by Christmas. Clarke said the Hudl smartphone would be a high-end [...]
US corporate results round up May 6, 2014 Shares in Office Depot rise on plan to shut 400 stores in the States Office Depot has raised its forecast for full-year adjusted profit and said it would close at least 400 stores in the United States over two years, sending the office supply retailer's shares up about 15 per cent at the start of [...]
Clipper Logistics plans London float as it eyes European growth May 6, 2014 LOGISTICS firm Clipper yesterday unveiled its plans to float on the London Stock Exchange, as it looks to accelerate its European expansion drive and take advantage of the growing online retail market. The company provides tailor-made logistics solutions for pure-play online retailers such as Asos and traditional high street retailers adopting multichannel strategies such as [...]
The truth behind China’s numbers May 6, 2014 FEW can doubt the importance of China to the world today. But as research by the World Bank’s International Comparison Program has highlighted – the country may be close to becoming as large an economy as the US on a purchasing power parity basis – China’s actual size and the speed of its growth are [...]
What you need to know before the open May 6, 2014 Markets are expected to open slightly higher this morning, following Asian counterparts, which have gained on encouraging US data out yesterday. Although Wall Street saw a more solid finish, European stocks fell yesterday as worries over Ukraine rumbled on and weak Chinese data led investors to shy away from risk. Corporate news Barclays has announced [...]
Amazon teams up with Twitter to launch tweet-to-buy service May 6, 2014 AMAZON’S customers can now order items from the online retail giant directly from Twitter. The Amazon Basket service lets users who have connected their Amazon and Twitter accounts to add items to their baskets just by tweeting the link of an Amazon product along with the #AmazonBasket hashtag. “When Amazon customers see an Amazon.co.uk product [...]
Shares in TSB for sale by end of June as Lloyds kicks off £1.5bn flotation May 1, 2014 RETAIL investors will get a chance to buy shares in new high street bank TSB by the end of June, Lloyds said yesterday. The group is selling off the bank as part of the terms of its 2008 bailout. Up to 40 per cent of TSB is likely to be on offer in the first [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 02 May 2014 May 1, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Ebay settles DoJ ‘no poach’ probe Ebay is the latest Silicon Valley company to settle with US authorities over allegations it struck illegal agreements with rivals to not hire their employees. The ecommerce company will pay California $3.75m, some of which will go to compensating employees affected by a so-called “no poach” agreement [...]