Future is sweet for Nectar as it ranks top of the loyalty schemes February 7, 2010 NECTAR has become the country’s most popular loyalty scheme, with 16.8m subscribers. A staggering 50 per cent of households now swipe their Nectar card when shopping in stores and online and it has become more popular than both the Tesco Clubcard and the Boots Advantage card. Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury’s customer director, said: “Customers are increasingly [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 7, 2010 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS Christine Cross, a former Tesco director, has joined the accountancy firm as chief retail adviser. Cross currently holds non-executive directorships at High Street retailer Next and Empire, the second largest Canadian grocery chain. She was at Tesco between 1989 and 2003, latterly as business development director. She is also currently a retail adviser to [...]
THE TIPSTER February 7, 2010 IF THERE’S one industry that has not weathered the recession well, it is travel firms. They have suffered from consumers tightening their belts while the weak pound has made Britons even less likely to holiday abroad. But TUI Travel should have benefited from many of its less resilient competitors falling by the wayside. With its [...]
Tesco staff to cash in with share plan February 4, 2010 Thousands of Tesco employees who invested in the company’s saving scheme have each netted a share of £144m. After 12 months’ employment, the supermarket allows staff to invest between £5 and £50 a month in its Save As You Earn share scheme. Those who saved the maximum for the five-year scheme gained a 100 per [...]
Flight to quality in stores February 2, 2010 Intense competition among Britain’s top grocers has hit sales growth at smaller hard discounters Aldi and Lidl, while Asda has suffered most from recent severe weather, market researchers said yesterday. Kantar Worldpanel, the new name for TNS Worldpanel, said sales at Britain’s grocers rose 5.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to 24 January, helped [...]
Blank makes comeback as UKTI adviser February 1, 2010 FORMER Lloyds Group chairman Sir Victor Blank has been brought in to advise the government on attracting overseas investment to the UK. Sir Victor, who resigned from the Lloyds board last year in the wake of its ill-fated takeover of HBOS, has taken a seat on a panel set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown [...]
Retail bonds launch online February 1, 2010 A NEW online trading platform will open up the corporate bond and gilt market to the retail sector. The launch of a new order book by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) yesterday will allow far greater access to private investors. Of an estimated 10,000 bond packages available, only 200 were readily available to retail investors. [...]
RBS ponders sale of HQ at Gogarburn February 1, 2010 JUST five years after the completion of Gogarburn – Royal Bank of Scotland’s vast headquarters near Edinburgh and the darling of disgraced former chief Sir Fred Goodwin – and the £350m office complex may already be heading for the block. RBS is considering the merits of a sale and leaseback of the property to shore [...]
Defensive shares lift FTSE but banks and miners weak January 26, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index added 0.3 per cent yesterday, as support for defensive issues, and a modest early rally on Wall Street, offset weakness in heavyweight miners and banks. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 16.54 points at 5,276.85, snapping a four-session losing streak, having earlier reached an intraday low for the [...]
Potential buyers line up for retail chain Adams January 25, 2010 THE troubled Adams childrenswear retail chain has received approaches from a number of potential buyers, according to administrators trying to save the company as a going concern. Insolvency firm MCR yesterday confirmed the assets of Adams’ parent company, JS Childrenswear, were up for sale. “We are already seeing significant interest in the business and assets [...]