Opinion: Considering buying a place above a shop? Don’t do it unless you’ve thought about these factors first January 27, 2017 Whether high street or side street, look up above any shop-lined street in the capital and you are bound to see apartments. Accessed by narrow doors tucked between the various operators, these spaces are proving an increasingly tempting living proposition. More and more, we are seeing developers turning the ground floor of their new schemes [...]
City Pub Company guzzles Christmas sales as it prepares to float this year January 18, 2017 City Pub Company has raised a toast to this Christmas after it nearly doubled like-for-like sales over the five-week festive period. The figures The pub owner and operator said sales for the period to 1 January were up 47 per cent compared with the previous year, while sales for the whole of 2016 were up 37 per cent. It also bagged [...]
Despite cost pressures, JD Wetherspoon predicts results will be slightly better than anticipated January 18, 2017 JD Wetherspoon is feeling the pinch as costs are set to rise over the financial year, but chairman Tim Martin said the company is cautiously predicting its results will be slightly better than forecast after positive half-year earnings. The figures In the first half of the year to 15 January, like-for-like sales increased by 3.4 per cent and total sales [...]
Here’s what protesters outside the Supreme Court during the Article 50 hearing had to say December 5, 2016 The Supreme Court hearing on how the government will trigger Article 50 began today. Outside the building, a group of about 20 to 30 protesters gathered to speak out, dance an Irish jig or wave their Union Jacks. Standing out in support of Brexit meaning Brexit was Catherine Cook, who travelled down from Newcastle to show her anger with Parliament. Ticking the box and leaving [...]
This economist thinks orange prices are about to go up because of the EU November 29, 2016 The EU has levied hiked taxes by five times on oranges in a move seemingly designed to protect Spanish orange farmers. The bloc increased eight tariffs on oranges imported from countries outside the EU last month, according to research by website EU tariffs. Read more: Wetherspoon's boss hits out at "elite groups" trying to stop Brexit The [...]
Don’t listen to the “cabal” of elites trying to keep us in the EU, says Wetherspoon boss November 29, 2016 The boss of Britain's largest pub chain has attacked a "cabal of politicians and elite groups… fighting to overturn the [Brexit] decision" comparing them with "undemocratic and totalitarian" regimes of the past. Wetherspoon's chairman and founder Tim Martin, who was vocal in campaigning for Britain to leave the EU in the run-up to the Brexit vote, warned [...]
Fuller’s facing unappetising cocktail of Brexit, living wage and business rate increases despite outperforming the market in first half November 18, 2016 Fuller's insisted it has "outperformed the market" in the first half of the financial year but cautioned that it faces an unappetising brew of Brexit, the onset of the National Living Wage and business rate changes. Overall revenue at the pub operator and brewer grew 11 per cent to £197.6m in the six months to 24 September, up [...]
Some of the EU’s largest companies are worried that a hard Brexit will cost them dear November 8, 2016 A hard Brexit could hit some of Europe's largest companies by increasing their cost of funding. A report by accountants EY revealed that the likes of Airbus and Volkswagen are worried about the fallout of Britain's exit from the EU, according to reports by Sky News. Read more: A "hard Brexit" could undermine the very things driving [...]
Do you want to buy back your own company? Wetherspoon’s boss says no and asks for shareholder help November 6, 2016 Wetherspoon shareholders will meet on Tuesday to head-off an unfortunate pickle that its boss and major shareholder has found himself in. Tim Martin, who owns 29.9 per cent of the pub chain giant, is facing the prospect of having to make a takeover offer for the very business he founded 37 years ago, due to Takeover [...]
Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin thinks that the falling pound will impact Eurozone businesses more than British companies November 2, 2016 Many of Britain's businesses may be feeling the pinch from sterling's recent malaise but the boss of one of Britain's largest pub chains doesn't think it will cause him too much pain. "The pound has gone up and down over the years and I haven’t noticed over the years a big effect on bar sales [...]