Meet Ernest: The free financial coach that sits in your Facebook October 24, 2016 When I was at BlackRock, I spent a lot of time on tech that was designed to improve return on investment for people who already had a lot of money,” says Niall Bellabarba, co-founder of Ernest, the intelligent finance coach. “So my starting point was that the man on the street doesn’t have access to [...]
NHS trusts eye £5bn savings in supply chain deal October 24, 2016 The NHS Shelford Group of 10 trusts has inked a deal with software firm Virtualstock to use its supply chain management software. It’s thought the deal will help the group surpass NHS targets of £5bn in savings by 2020. A February report estimated that £5bn is lost in the NHS through waste and price variations every [...]
10m journeys have been made with Sadiq Khan’s new bus Hopper fare October 20, 2016 Over 10m journeys have been made in the first six weeks of the Mayor's new bus "Hopper" fare, according to Transport for London (TfL). The milestone journey was made at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon on bus route 322, running from Tesco in Brent Park to Paddington Station. Read more: TfL signs £79m deal with Serco [...]
Pernod Ricard’s share price is up but warns British booze prices may need to go the same way October 20, 2016 Prices of some of Britain's best-loved spirits may be on the rise in coming months after the boss of spirits giant Pernod Ricard (Pernod) confirmed to investors that it would need to "adjust" prices in order to protect margins after sterling's recent slump. Pernod's finance chief, Gilles Bogaert, revealed the plans to increase prices in the UK after the group posted first [...]
Tesco executives to go on trial in September next year October 20, 2016 Three former Tesco executives have appeared in court today on fraud charges and a trial date has been set for September next year. Former finance director for Tesco UK Carl Rogberg, 49, ex-UK managing director Christopher Bush, 50, and ex-commercial director for food John Scouler, 48, have been charged with one count of fraud by abuse [...]
15,000 people apply for 78 Virgin Trains driver jobs October 19, 2016 More than 15,000 people have applied to drive Virgin's new Azuma trains, after the rail operator launched its biggest recruitment drive on the east coast route since the 1980s. And there were only 78 positions up for grabs. There hasn't been quite so much excitement over a job listing since Tesco advertised for a Christmas tree [...]
HSBC marks out the winners and losers from the national living wage October 19, 2016 HSBC has today outlined how businesses can combat the cost pressures of the national living wage – and the kind of companies that will be the winners and losers from the legislation. The best way to offset the new costs is to find productivity growth, HSBC analysts said in a note, although "this would require a [...]
The Brexit rally is less fragile than it looks October 19, 2016 The performance of UK shares has generally confounded most strategists. Since the vote to leave the EU in June, UK savers have enjoyed returns of close to 15 per cent. While the weakness of sterling has eaten most of those returns for overseas investors, we are in a much better place than many were predicting in [...]
Attempt to revamp retail banking was “feeble”, Treasury committee hears October 18, 2016 Recent efforts to improve banking for customers have been weak, the man at the helm of a leading consumer interest body has said today. Speaking in front of the Treasury Select Committee today, Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which?, slammed the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) recent report into the retail banking sector as "feeble", remarking it [...]
Take that, Aldi: Tesco gains market share for the first time in years but Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Asda decline further October 18, 2016 It looks like Tesco is beginning to win the battle of the supermarkets, after new figures showed it won supermarket share in the last three months – for the first time in five years. Figures by Kantar Worldpanel showed Tesco increased sales by 1.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to 9 October, which pushed its [...]