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, [...]
With expectations so low, Starmer might just carve out a win January 7, 2025 From a news perspective, the Christmas break was more Deck the Halls than Silent Night. Keir Starmer ended last year with approval ratings so low that critics were never going to call off the dogs in the spirit of good will to all men. The PM couldn’t even enjoy a toboggan run in Madeira without [...]
Founder Favourites: Richard Farleigh on what playing chess, investing and starting a business have in common January 6, 2025 Richard Farleigh sits down with Jennifer Sieg and Emmanuel Nwosu, speaking on all things investments, start-ups, ambition and the future of business.
AIM-pocalypse: Number of £1bn firms on junior market falls to nine-year low January 6, 2025 Only six companies listed on London’s junior market AIM are worth more than £1bn, the lowest level for the exchange in nine years. The number of companies worth over £1bn has dropped by 80 per cent since the start of 2022 and almost halved over the last year, according to data from the London Stock [...]
Crypto ranked among top three alternative investments in 2024 January 6, 2025 Crypto and digital assets emerged as the third most popular investment of the past 12 months, driven by a 49 per cent surge in online searches. Whisky and Wealth Club’s research highlighted cryptocurrencies as one of the top three performing alternative investment sectors, alongside peer-to-peer lending and music royalties. Despite their notorious volatility, digital assets [...]
Time to Get Tough on Retailers Selling Vapes to Children January 6, 2025 | Sponsored Asli Ertonguc, Area Director Western Europe for BAT The UK has set its sights on becoming ‘smoke-free’ by 2030. This is a bold andcommendable ambition, and one which BAT UK supports. Yet, a lack of actionaround underage vaping and an increase of illicit vapes has diminished trust in therole of vaping at a precarious moment [...]
Typhoo Tea racked up debts of £100m as it collapsed into administration January 6, 2025 Typhoo Tea collapsed into administration owing around £100m to its creditors ahead of being rescued, it has been revealed. The Bristol-based company entered administration in November 2024 before being bought in a £10m deal the following month. Now, a new document filed with Companies House by Kroll has revealed how much Typhoo Tea owed to [...]
Billionaire Bet365 boss Denise Coates slashes pay as betting giant makes huge profit January 6, 2025 The billionaire boss of Bet365, Denise Coates, has seen her salary slashed by almost £130m as the betting giant surged back into the black with a profit of almost £600m. Coates, whose father founded the Stoke-on-Trent company, was paid £94.6m in the year to 31 March 2024, according to newly-filed accounts with Companies House. The [...]
Waterstones plans dozens more UK stores as it mulls possible London or US IPO January 6, 2025 Waterstones boss James Daunt has said he plans to open dozens more bookshops this year in the UK, along with considering a potential flotation in London or New York. He told the Financial Times it would be “logical” to look at an initial public offering of a consolidated combination of Waterstones and Barnes & Noble [...]
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 [...]