Big four grocers all lose ground to discounters April 8, 2014 BRITAIN’S four biggest supermarket groups all lost market share over the last three months to German discounters Aldi and Lidl, with Sainsbury’s suffering the biggest drop in market share in ten years. Sainsbury’s has until this month been the only one of the big four to resist the pressure of the discounters and hold onto [...]
Transport for London looks for £3.5bn of commercial revenues June 2, 2014 TRANSPORT for London (TfL) has begun searching for a new sponsor of the city’s bicycle hire scheme, hoping to bring in more money and a long-term partner following Barclays’ departure. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has written to 200 of TfL’s biggest advertisers to gauge interest in sponsoring the bicycles, which were launched on [...]
Asda still set to expand even as revenues slow August 15, 2013 ASDA, Britain’s second largest supermarket, said yesterday that it would continue to carry out an “aggressive” growth strategy building more stores, as it reported a slowdown in second quarter like-for-like sales. Grocers like Tesco have called an end to an era of rapid growth known as the “space race”, turning their attention instead to online, [...]
London to lead UK growth for years to come May 27, 2014 THE CAPITAL will keep on booming over the next five years, economists predicted today, leading the UK’s spreading recovery. The positive forecast came amid a raft of strong data, with a survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) which showed services firms are more upbeat than at any time since 1998. Households are now [...]
Royal Mail veteran Allan Leighton announced as chair of Peppa Pig owner March 31, 2014 Allan Leighton, chief executive of jewellery company Pandora and former chairman of Royal Mail, has been appointed chairman of Entertainment One, who jointly own, with Astley Baker Davies, popular children's TV programme Peppa Pig. Leighton is a boardroom heavyweight; he's been chief executive of Asda, chairman of lastminute.com, and on the board of BSkyB. Chairman James Corsellis has stepped [...]
The week in brief May 11, 2014 Publicis Group and Omnicom merger falls apart Publicis and Omicom, two of the world’s biggest advertising firms, have called off ther proposed merger. The $35bn (£22.8bn) deal would have formed the world’s largest ad agency. It was claimed last July that the merger would enable the two giants to compete more effectively in the digital [...]
Clipper Logistics plans London float as it eyes European growth May 6, 2014 LOGISTICS firm Clipper yesterday unveiled its plans to float on the London Stock Exchange, as it looks to accelerate its European expansion drive and take advantage of the growing online retail market. The company provides tailor-made logistics solutions for pure-play online retailers such as Asos and traditional high street retailers adopting multichannel strategies such as [...]
More to spend as income growth above inflation March 31, 2014 HOUSEHOLDS have seen their weekly discretionary spending rise by £5 in the year to February, the fastest uptick for 15 months, Asda’s income tracker suggests. The analysis of UK incomes released today shows typical disposable incomes rising to £169 per week this February, a 2.95 per cent increase since February 2013. The supermarket highlighted declining [...]
Best of the Brokers for 25 March 2014 March 24, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com LLOYDS Investec has returned to a “buy” rating on the bank, two months after downgrading it to a “hold”, and sticks to its 85p target. The broker says it’s safe for investors to get back into the water now Lloyds has tackled its PPI [...]
Supermarkets are getting a quiet boost as entertainment spend booms online May 29, 2014 In the UK, one third of our spend on entertainment – so on CDs, DVDs and games – is now done online. Data from Kantar Worldpanel, covering the first part of this year, show that one in every three pounds people spend on physical entertainment objects is online. Interestingly, 20 per cent of all online [...]