UK shoemaker pumped up by sole investor January 20, 2014 HOTTER Shoes, the UK’s biggest shoe manufacturer, has been sold to Electra Private Equity in a £200m deal giving buyout house control of the company. The 55-year-old business, captained by founder Stewart Houlgrave, has been owned by rival private equity firm Gresham since 2007, expanding from five to 56 stores during that time. Listed fund [...]
Store makeovers help Superdrug keep its tills ringing at Christmas January 20, 2014 SUPERDRUG yesterday posted a rise in like-for-like sales over Christmas thanks to a revamp of its stores and shoppers buying gifts such as perfume over the festive period. The health and beauty retailer, which launched 50 years ago on Putney High Street and now has 850 shops in the UK & Ireland, said like-for-like sales [...]
Laura Ashley rewards investors with a £7.5m bonus dividend January 20, 2014 LAURA Ashley said yesterday it is to reward shareholders with a £7.5m bonus dividend as a token of appreciation. The home furnishings and fashion retailer, which is majority owned by the Malaysian conglomerate MUI, declared an interim dividend of one pence per share for the year to 25 January. “This is to show our appreciation [...]
Why doesn’t UK growth reflect red hot business surveys? January 20, 2014 While several surveys are roaring higher, the strength implied by these indicators isn't apparent in official data. Deutsche Bank's chief UK economist, George Buckley, has looked into the problem ahead of the latest GDP figures, due on the 28 Janaury. Analysts expect fourth quarter GDP to come in slightly lower than the previous two quarters [...]
Fat Face moves closer to stock market debut January 20, 2014 Clothes shop Fat Face is ratcheting up its plans to seek a listing on the London Stock Exchange, and has brought in a slew of bankers to advise on a possible flotation. Bridgepoint, the private equity group that owns Fat Face, hired financial advisory group Lazard in December to assess options. And after strong Christmas [...]
Mothercare is said to be in the sights of retailing giant Tesco January 19, 2014 TESCO considered a bid for mother and baby products retailer Mothercare to help reinvigorate its supermarkets, the Sunday Times reported. Citing retail sources, the newspaper said Tesco examined a bid six months ago but has put the plan on hold. However, the recent fall in Mothercare’s share price could rekindle Tesco’s plan according to the [...]
More competition would be good but Miliband is proposing little that’s new January 19, 2014 ED MILIBAND appears to be in the process of reinventing the Labour Party as the consumer party. His central theme is the “cost of living crisis”. He tells us how he is on the side of consumers in gas and electricity, freezing prices, in banks forcing competition, and in general by having consumer bodies report [...]
Springbok spicing up the wine market January 19, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to Rowan Gormley, the South African taking on wine’s giants with venture Naked Wines THE DAYS of the wine snob – so brilliantly caricatured by Richard E Grant’s the Hon Simon Marchmont in the BBC’s Posh Nosh – could be coming to an end. It’s an industry long characterised by an assumption [...]
UK retail sales increase at strongest rate since February 2010 in December January 17, 2014 Christmas was a pretty mixed bag for some retailers, but figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest that the squeeze on consumers is easing, and they were able to make the most of bargain and discount shopping. December retail sales jumped 5.3 per cent from a year earlier, up 2.6 per cent in the [...]
What you need to know before the open – 17/01 January 17, 2014 European markets are set to move higher today after marginal gains in US equity futures and Asian stocks. We've got UK retail sales for December this morning, which'll reveal more about shopping over Christmas. And in Asia, the Nikkei dropped in trading today, after US corporate earnings damaged investor sentiment. ETX Capital #MorningCall FTSE [...]