Apple slides as Christmas sales forecast falters November 1, 2018 Californian tech giant Apple said its sales over the festive period could slip below consensus expectations, despite achieving its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth and its best September quarter to date. The company’s outlook on revenue for the rest of the year, which gives an indication on how well its latest products are [...]
Profit on the cards: Card Factory sees profits rise despite fall in like-for-like sales September 25, 2018 Card Factory hailed a double digit rise in profit today as it was boosted by record sales for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Read more: Heatwave hit retail footfall figures in August The figures The high street retailer saw pre-tax profit grow 17.2 per cent year on year to £27.2m for the [...]
Support your local small business all year, otherwise it might not stick around December 3, 2018 American Express’s Small Business Saturday last weekend saw a call to arms to encourage us to shop locally and support small businesses. Since its launch in 2010, this annual event now reaches millions of people across the US, UK and Australia, helping independent retailers get their share of the Christmas spending frenzy. Small Business Saturday [...]
Black Friday draws in biggest ever week of sales for John Lewis November 27, 2018 John Lewis Partnership said today that it has seen its biggest ever week of sales as shoppers flooded the beleaguered retailer’s stores for Black Friday discounts. Total sales for the week jumped 7.7 per cent when compared with the same week last year, as purchases hit a record in the firm’s 150-year-old history. Fashion and home [...]
Mark Hix thinks it’s time for the famous 500lb ‘tunny’ to make a comeback in British waters December 6, 2018 Britain’s waters have always contained tuna, but as a nation we largely ignored them until relatively recently. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that people started constructing special rods to catch these 500lb beasts, with a thriving fishing community growing in Scarborough. There was a huge herring fishery on the east coast and tunny – [...]
Tech firms lead the drop as US stock markets head for worst month in nine years October 27, 2018 The US stock market took another hit on Friday as the S&P 500 was "on the cusp of despair" after it fell by almost 2 per cent. The market was on the edge of correction territory after disappointing forecasts from leading technology groups triggered a wider sell-off as investors continued their retreat from risky assets. The [...]
Changing lives for good November 13, 2018 When ActionAid decided to launch a five-year strategy that focused on the rights of women and girls, funding from the players of People’s Postcode Lottery proved vital. It allowed us to scale up our work tackling the violence women and girls face every day worldwide. ActionAid has a long history and reputation for its grassroots [...]
Jaguar Land Rover to shut Solihull factory for two weeks amid trade tensions and weak China demand October 8, 2018 Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is set to shut down its Solihull plant for two weeks, blaming economic uncertainty and dampened demand for its cars in China. Staff will be sent home on full pay for a fortnight from 22 October as the British car manufacturer stops producing any vehicles, as it tries to match supply to [...]
Crystal Palace will be underdogs against Tottenham in the FA Cup but have proven they can beat anybody on their day January 24, 2019 Crystal Palace may languish in the bottom half of the Premier League but they have established themselves as a team more than capable of going toe to toe with the best around. For England’s bigger sides, facing Palace represents a test that must be negotiated with extreme caution, as the majority of the Big Six [...]
Here are all the predictions I got wrong in 2018 December 21, 2018 I should have given up making predictions in June 2017. Three months earlier, I had spoken at a conference on Brexit and suggested that the best way forward for Theresa May would be to call a snap election and strengthen her negotiating hand. I don’t know how the Prime Minister got word of my advice, [...]