Innovation Diary: Why the rise of the intrapreneur may be picking up momentum August 18, 2013 MANY startups are sceptical of claims that big corporates understand small business. It certainly suits an image, but the reality is often different. A recent inquiry found, for example, that small and medium-sized businesses were owed a record £35.3bn in late payments at the end of 2012, with big firms the main culprits. Many startups [...]
Asda still set to expand even as revenues slow August 15, 2013 ASDA, Britain’s second largest supermarket, said yesterday that it would continue to carry out an “aggressive” growth strategy building more stores, as it reported a slowdown in second quarter like-for-like sales. Grocers like Tesco have called an end to an era of rapid growth known as the “space race”, turning their attention instead to online, [...]
John Lewis is set to create a new restaurant August 14, 2013 JOHN Lewis is poised to launch a new restaurant concept in a move to diversify its catering range and attract more customers into its department stores. Chief executive Andy Street said while John Lewis’ restaurants and cafeterias were profitable and provided good quality, “middle of the road” food, they were not “cutting edge” brands. “There [...]
Labour U-turn on criticism of Tesco and Next August 12, 2013 LABOUR’S immigration spokesman Chris Bryant yesterday endured a day from hell as he attempted to defuse a row with two retail giants while launching a new immigration policy. Bryant had planned to attack Tesco and Next for allegedly preferring cheap employees from eastern Europe at the expense of British workers. But after the firms complained [...]
Don’t blame immigration policy for the problems in our labour market August 12, 2013 TWO years ago, as the recovery stalled, a number of commentators suggested that the main problem with the UK economy was too much “red tape” preventing employers creating jobs. In response, the government commissioned a report from Adrian Beecroft on labour market regulation. It was deservedly mocked for ignoring the evidence – and, in particular, [...]
Labour’s immigration speech overshadowed by Tesco/Next row August 12, 2013 Labour’s shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant was forced to defend his criticisms of Tesco and Next made in a speech on Labour’s immigration policy earlier today (today's speech in full). In the leaked version of the speech, Bryant criticised “unscrupulous employers” who choose to use cheaper foreign workers over British candidates in an attempt to [...]
Retail bosses fight back after Labour attack August 11, 2013 HIGH street giants Tesco and Next have lashed out at Labour after the party branded them “unscrupulous employers” and claimed they preferred cheap Eastern European staff over British workers. Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant will today call out hiring procedures at the two firms as part of a wide-ranging attack on businesses that use [...]
John Lewis is set to create a new restaurant August 11, 2013 JOHN Lewis is poised to launch a new restaurant concept in a move to diversify its catering range and attract more customers into its department stores. Chief executive Andy Street said while John Lewis’ restaurants and cafeterias were profitable and provided good quality, “middle of the road” food, they were not “cutting edge” brands. [...]
Bottom Line: Head this way for destination retail August 11, 2013 TESCO unveiled its revamped hypermarket in Watford last week to much fanfare. The 80,000 square foot store is a crucial test-bed for the “retail destination” concept Tesco is creating to tackle declining footfall as the digital revolution bites. Tony Hoggett, Tesco Extra head, said the store – with its community room, Euphorium bakery, Giraffe [...]
Tesco pulls out of independent Chinese operations amid growing regional competition August 9, 2013 Tesco has announced it will be ending its independent operations in China to embark on a joint venture with China Resources Enterprise (release). Tesco will merge 131 of its stores with 2.986 of CRE’s, taking advantage of the Chinese company’s “deep understanding of local customers, established nationwide infrastructure and proven track record as a partner [...]