Retail gloom as festive season fails to save 2024 trading January 7, 2025 High street stores showed anaemic growth in the 2024 festive season, despite hopes that Christmas trading would inject some cheer into the sector. Sales grew just 0.3 per cent overall in the ‘golden quarter’, which includes Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Online sales continued to beat in-store, [...]
Unhappy New Year? 72 per cent say UK ‘going in wrong direction’ January 7, 2025 Keir Starmer’s chances of a New Year reset have been dealt a blow with new research revealing a lack of confidence in the government’s economic policies. The first of a new monthly City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll found that 72 per cent of voters say the UK is going in the “wrong direction”, including 53 per [...]
Why the state should stay out of the kitchen January 7, 2025 A think tank has seriously floated the idea of government-run restaurants. The idea belongs in an age of wartime rationing, not the thriving, free-market food scene the City enjoys today, says Matthew Kilcoyne One wonders if the festive sherry stocks have been hit rather hard in certain London think tanks this Christmas. How else to [...]
TGL explained: All you need to know about Woods and McIlroy’s new golf league January 6, 2025 A year later than planned, golf will get a glimpse of its possible future when the first match of TGL, the brand new, made-for-TV team golf competition from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports, swings into virtual action on Tuesday. The contest between New York Golf Club, featuring Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander [...]
Yeo Valley doubles profit after natural yoghurt demand surges January 6, 2025 Profit at Yeo Valley has almost doubled after sales at the dairy giant jumped by £40m during its latest financial year. The Somerset-headquartered business has reported a pre-tax profit of £8.1m for the year to 26 May, 2024, according to newly-filed accounts with Companies House. The latest figure comes after Yeo Valley returned to the [...]
UK economy to stage ‘welcome recovery’ thanks to consumer rebound January 6, 2025 The firm forecast that GDP will increase by 1.7 per cent over 2025, double the 0.8 per cent expansion anticipated for 2024.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s to shed light on Christmas sales performance January 5, 2025 The UK’s biggest supermarket groups will shed light next week on how they fared over the key Christmas period amid pressure on shoppers’ budgets. Tesco and Sainsbury’s will both provide third-quarter updates for investors and analysts, where they will reveal their sales for the weeks running up to Christmas. Both grocers are expected to reveal [...]
FTSE 100 to outperform S&P 500 in 2025 says Wall Street January 3, 2025 Equity analysts have predicted that the FTSE 100 will have a record year in 2025, helped by lower interest rates and higher oil prices. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Wall Street analysts believe the UK’s flagship blue-chip index will jump 15 per cent in 2025, its best year since 2009. In 2024, the index [...]
Eden Project losses nearly double despite visitors spike January 3, 2025 A spike in visitor numbers failed to stop Cornwall tourist attraction Eden Project falling deeper into the red during its latest financial year. The site welcomed more than 604,000 visitors in the year to 31 March, 2024, up from the over 551,000 who went there in the prior 12 months. As a result, Eden Project’s [...]
Cinch sales drop below £1bn after ‘rapidly falling’ used car prices January 3, 2025 Sales are car retailer Cinch dipped below £1bn after the company was hit by “rapidly falling” used vehicle prices. For the 12 months to 31 March, 2024, the Hampshire-based firm posted a revenue of £932.5m, down from the £1.01bn it achieved in the prior year. Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also show that its pre-tax [...]