ARE THE TESCO FIGURES A SIGN OF BETTER TIMES AHEAD? January 12, 2010 SAM HART | CHARLES STANLEY “We continue to believe that conditions in the UK food retail industry remain relatively benign and expect a tail wind of higher food price inflation to return later in 2010. As such, we expect Tesco to continue to deliver high single/ low double-digit growth for at least the next three [...]
Disappointing results from Alcoa rock mining stocks January 12, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed 0.7 per cent lower yesterday as commodities and banks led the retreat over concerns that China’s move to tighten banks’ reserve requirements may slow global economic recovery. The FTSE 100 index closed down 39.36 points at 5,498.71, dropping back after hitting a 16-month intraday peak at 5,600.48 on Monday. China’s [...]
Waitrose and Sainsbury’s boost their brands January 12, 2010 RETAILERS have had a bumper Christmas according to the British?Retail?Consortium, but here is my review of 2009 as far as supermarkets are concerned. Graph 1 shows the share of total attention that each of the six received on BrandIndex. Over the course of 2009, Aldi and Asda dropped, Tesco and Morrison’s stayed steady, and Waitrose [...]
Tesco sales surge after Clubcard bonus January 12, 2010 TESCO has had its best Christmas in three years after slashing prices and offering double Clubcard points to get customers through the door. Britain’s biggest supermarket chain reported that like-for-like sales at its UK stores jumped by 4.9 per cent during December and early January. Tesco saw a 35 per cent surge in sales of [...]
High street celebrates Xmas boost January 11, 2010 SNOWY weather and economic gloom could not deter British shoppers from hitting the high streets in their droves last month, giving retailers their best December performance in four years, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Total retail sales values increased by an astonishing six per cent last month on December 2008 and 5.4 [...]
Abbey takes Spanish brand January 11, 2010 SPANISH banking giant Santander yesterday signalled that it would join the growing ranks of buyers circling the branches being sold off by Northern Rock, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland. Chairman Emilio Botín yesterday said that the bank would “take advantage of opportunities” in the UK. Branches up for sale include more than 300 from [...]
Virgin and Tesco banks are unlikely to upset big players January 11, 2010 THE UK’s top five banks will continue to dominate the market despite the recent glut of negative publicity. A new report from Datamonitor suggests new players entering the market have “missed the boat” and should have launched in the direct aftermath of the banking crisis. Customer inertia is seen as the biggest stopping point for [...]
Strength in energy issues is offset by weakness in miners January 11, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index ended flat yesterday with strength in energy issues countering a sell-off in miners, weak financial issues and uncertain progress on Wall Street. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 3.83 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,538.07, having touched a 16-month intraday peak of 5,600.48 early in the session. [...]
RBS hires advisers to prepare 300 of its outlets for sale January 10, 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has appointed UBS to advise on the sale of more than 300 branches, which is expected to attract a flurry of interest. A teaser document, detailing the branches included in the sale, was circulated at the end of 2009. Potential bidders include National Australia Bank, which owns Clydesdale and Yorkshire [...]
Outlook continues to present challenges for retail January 10, 2010 In a bout of not-particularly-investigative journalism, I set Tesco a mystery shopper challenge last week, ordering a hefty shop be delivered to my home just as the heaviest snow was due to fall. Right on time two cheerful chaps showed up without even a word of complaint about the weather. Impressive. We’ll have to wait [...]