London Report: Retailers set to reveal scale of 2013 hangover January 5, 2014 RETAIL figures due this week will reveal whether Britain’s major brands are going into the New Year with a Christmas hangover. Marks & Spencer and Tesco are both set to report on Thursday, and J Sainsbury on Wednesday, with figures likely to show retailers faced a dismal festive season. Debenhams has already set the tone, [...]
We’re keeping up with the drones… December 2, 2013 SO, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, is getting into the drone game. Once the reserve of the military and largely a source of fear, drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (to give them their proper title) are making their way into the mainstream. Amazon aside, The Capitalist has noticed drones are already being used [...]
Analyst Views: Has Domino’s kept the fire going under third quarter sales? October 2, 2013 KARL BURNS PANMURE GORDON“The update is better than expected, despite the warm weather and despite a pretty tough trading environment. The hangover in Germany is known about now and apart from maybe a lack of performance on new openings, trading is pretty strong across all aspects of the business. WAYNE BROWN CANACCORD GENUITY“In a retail [...]
Pizza and a Hot Dog for charity traders September 1, 2013 A HOT dog and pizza were order of the day at UKForex’s annual charity trading event this year. The firm’s City staff and pets donned superhero costumes, with Super Dog beating rival pet pooch Hot Dog, along with Spiderman, Wonder Woman and Superman to the best dressed prize. Food wasn’t themed, so there were no [...]
London Report: UK data to show the economy in healthier state September 29, 2013 EXPECTED improvements in the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data for manufacturing, construction and services this week should all point to further signs of the UK’s economic growth. “The purchasing managers’ surveys are expected to show further robust growth in September across the services, manufacturing and construction sectors which would bode well for hopes that GDP [...]
The new peers are in the House August 1, 2013 THE CAPITALIST noticed a few familiar City faces among the list of 30 new peers who were welcomed to the House of Lords yesterday. Former executive director of corporate and legal affairs at Tesco Lucy Neville-Rolfe made the list, as did Charles Allen, the ex-boss of ITV, who was also appointed chairman of the executive board [...]
Domino’s goes cold as more directors sell off stakes amid weakened profits August 5, 2013 Shares in Domino’s Pizza have lost 7.5 per cent on the news two prominent directors and company shareholders sold shares in the company late last Friday. Nigel Wray, non-executive director and once a holder of just under 30 per cent of the company, has sold his remaining three per cent stake for 570p per share, [...]
Four ways to cut down on social loafing April 10, 2014 Delegating clearly and obeying the “two pizza rule” will help your team work more effectively FRENCH engineer Max Ringelmann was measuring the force exerted by workers pulling on a rope about a century ago. He noticed something interesting. When more men were added to the experiment, the pull on the rope didn’t increase proportionally. And [...]
Hate meetings? There are solutions April 22, 2014 You can’t escape the corporate meeting boom, but you can stop wasting so much time OVER a third start late, we lose the equivalent of 31 hours a month each because they’re unproductive, and many people hate them anyway. Meetings are the bête noire of corporate life and, according to one survey, 39 per cent [...]
London Report: Carney’s first inflation report in the spotlight August 4, 2013 NEW Bank of England governor Mark Carney will take centre stage this week as he announces the latest Quarterly Inflation Report, plus plans to adopt forward guidance on interest rates for the first time. Forward guidance would give the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) a third method of influencing the economy, alongside interest rates and [...]