Ocado to report a healthy sales drive June 20, 2010 THE online grocer, Ocado, aims to make its stock market debut by the middle of next month and is expected to make a formal announcement next week. The company has achieved soaring sales but has yet to make a pretax profit. Ocado hopes to achieve a valuation of £1bn and has appointed JPMorgan Cazenove, UBS [...]
Ocado June 20, 2010 THE former Goldman bankers behind Ocado certainly have chutzpah. Trying to reach a £1bn valuation in a flotation is a tall order for pretty much any firm in these times; to do so without having turned a single penny of profit is nothing short of brazen. Ocado’s product is top-drawer in many respects, there’s no [...]
SANDWICH TALKS GO STALE June 20, 2010 DEAL discussions between the husband-and-wife owners of Eat, Niall and Faith MacArthur, and Waitrose have ended after the two sides were unable to agree a price for the sale of the fast food business. Eat, which is valued at between £100m and £150m, will now concentrate on expanding beyond its 100 outlets.
Summer quaffing June 16, 2010 AH, summer. Despite a frosty few days, the sun is shining and it’s the season for lovely uplifting wines. We’ve got two of our favourite City wine experts to tell us their top summer wine picks. Neleen Strauss is the co-owner and sommelier at Thames-side restaurant High Timber (the cellar has 40,000 bottles in it) [...]
Soda queen takes on Goliath June 10, 2010 LAUNCHING a cola and taking on one of the best-known brands in the world doesn’t sound like it would be a success – not even Sir Richard Branson could topple Coke with Virgin Cola. But Miranda Walker, the co-founder of the Ubuntu Trading Company, was not deterred. She launched Ubuntu, a cola drink, in September [...]
APPS June 10, 2010 Q. What exactly is an iPhone application and why is it useful? A. An iPhone app is essentially a tiny website that taps into your iPhone’s capabilities such as its GPS, camera or compass. But, unlike a regular website loaded on your phone, an app is built to communicate directly with the available hardware of [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 8, 2010 Signia Wealth The ultra high net worth wealth manager has hired mobile phones tycoon John Caudwell to take up a seat on its advisory board. Caudwell will provide entrepreneurial leadership for the firm alongside its other advisers, including private equity guru Jon Moulton. Caudwell previously founded and led the Caudwell Group, including mobile phone retailer [...]
WM Morrison poaches Waitrose second in command as seeks to move upmarket June 8, 2010 WM Morrison yesterday lured Richard Hodgson from Waitrose to be commercial director to replace trading director Martyn Jones, who has been give the new role of corporate services director. Jones will take up his new position from September 2010 when he will step down from the Morrison’s board. Hodgson has experience across all areas of [...]
Ocado offers top shoppers share chance June 7, 2010 ONLINE supermarket Ocado has offered its most loyal customers the chance to buy shares if it goes ahead with plans to float on the London Stock Exchange. Chief executive Tim Steiner told customers in a letter yesterday that anyone who has spent £300 with the online grocer this year would be eligible to participate in [...]
Fresh Ocado deal boosts plans to float May 26, 2010 OCADO has struck a new 10-year partnership deal with Waitrose – strengthening its position as it presses ahead with plans to float. The two firms said yesterday they had sealed a deal under which Ocado will be able to continue selling Waitrose products until September 2020. A previous agreement had been due to expire in [...]