Here is the Next step for Marks & Spencer to take November 8, 2011 TWENTY years ago, the UK was in recession and Marks & Spencer had just changed its boss: some things never change. Under Rick Greenbury, M&S went on to have a good 1990s, before over-expansion led to the inevitable and painful correction, under a new management team. Twenty years on, the competition is much tougher and [...]
Robertson joins the board of Hargreaves Lansdown October 3, 2011 INVESTMENT adviser Hargreaves Lansdown yesterday announced that British Retail Consortium (BRC) director general Stephen Robertson would be joining as a non-executive director. Robertson’s career has spanned 14 years on the boards of major UK retailers, including previous management roles with Mars, Unilever and Alberto-Culver. He also served for seven years as marketing director at B&Q [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 26, 2011 Linklaters David Cheyne will stay on at the law firm as a consultant in an active client-facing role, after his term as senior partner comes to an end on 30 September. Cheyne joined Linklaters in 1972 and became a partner in 1980. He was global head of the firm’s corporate department from 2000 to 2005, [...]
Nightmare for Dreams as insurer pulls cover despite refinancing August 7, 2011 BED retailer Dreams has been hit with a vote of no confidence from the insurer of its suppliers, which suspended its cover of about a fifth of Dreams’ suppliers last week. Euler Hermes, which insures suppliers against their customers going bankrupt, put Dreams’ suppliers on notice that its cover would end in 30 days, leaving [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 14, 2011 Towry The wealth adviser has appointed Gerald Corbett as a non-executive director, adding to his chairmanships of Britvic and Moneysupermarket.com and his non-executive directorship of Numis Securities. Corbett’s previous non-exec roles include Greencore Group, Burmah Castrol and MEPC; he is also a former chairman of SSL International and the Woolworth Group. During his executive career, [...]
Online retail sucks life out of high street April 18, 2011 ONLINE retail is growing six times faster than high street sales and is forecast to hit £37bn a year by 2014, according to a retail survey. The rapid expansion is hitting high street retailers who are struggling to remain competitive with 40,000 shops closing over the past decade. Smartphones are fuelling the rapid online sales [...]
Secrets of success: meet the man who runs the Ivy April 18, 2011 WHAT’S THE KEY TO THE IVY’S ENDURING, RAGING, CULTISH SUCCESS? The juxtaposition of people; you’re rarely going to find that in another restaurant. Celebrities next to tourists and regular Londoners. Then it’s focus on the customer. That’s the key to a good restaurant. Each day we look at what went wrong and see how we [...]
STOCK EXCHANGE VET TO STAGE WEST END MUSICAL COMEBACK April 14, 2011 THE Stock Exchange Veterans dinner last night had the largest turnout in its 15-year history, with 470 brokers out in force at The Brewery. The event’s organiser Bill Sharp, head of institutional sales at Alexander David, was delighted to “see so many old friends”, including Ron Martin, chairman of Southend United FC, Brian Winterflood of [...]
Choc & Awe April 13, 2011 TIME was when an Easter egg was a bottom-rung milk chocolate concoction picked up at the corner shop, that kids could hunt for in the garden before being made sick by it. But now that we’re a nation of foodies – and more to the point, a nation increasingly rich in the kind of imaginative [...]
Wake up and smell the instant coffee March 24, 2011 CHRISTMAS?2010 will be remembered as Britain’s last big spending splurge. What better way to end almost two decades of unsustainable, debt-fuelled largesse than with a massive turkey dinner and tonnes of presents? Supermarkets could barely believe it as families spent more than ever before on rich food and booze; John Lewis notched up record sales. [...]