Harding walks to TalkTalk December 15, 2009 DIDO Harding, the former Tesco executive who heads Sainsbury’s convenience stores, is to join TalkTalk as its chief executive when it demerges from Carphone Warehouse. TalkTalk will be Britain’s biggest residential broadband provider when it splits from the retail arm of Carphone Warehouse next year. Harding, who previously held management positions at Thomas Cook and [...]
Morrison beats rivals with festive sales boost January 21, 2010 SUPERMARKET chain Morrison posted the biggest rise in Christmas sales among Britain’s top four grocers – but urged caution about 2010. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 6.5 per cent, excluding petrol and VAT, in the six weeks to 3 January. Total revenue rose by 10.8 per cent for the period. Morrison, [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 4, 2010 CARNIVAL Cruise operator Carnival’s full year results were ahead of market expectations and Charles Stanley expects yields to continue to recover with the US economy in 2010. It believes cruising remains a structural growth industry with good prospects for growth in Europe and Asia. Booking and occupancy levels remain strong, it said. J SAINSBURY Shore [...]
Tesco tills ring for Christmas with 4.9 per cent sales hike January 12, 2010 TESCO has had its best Christmas in three years after slashing prices and offering double Clubcard points to get customers through the door. Britain’s biggest supermarket chain said yesterday that like-for-like sales at its UK stores jumped by 4.9 per cent during December and early January. Tesco reported a 35 per cent surge in sales [...]
High street celebrates Xmas boost January 11, 2010 SNOWY weather and economic gloom could not deter British shoppers from hitting the high streets in their droves last month, giving retailers their best December performance in four years, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Total retail sales values increased by an astonishing six per cent last month on December 2008 and 5.4 [...]
Outlook continues to present challenges for retail January 10, 2010 In a bout of not-particularly-investigative journalism, I set Tesco a mystery shopper challenge last week, ordering a hefty shop be delivered to my home just as the heaviest snow was due to fall. Right on time two cheerful chaps showed up without even a word of complaint about the weather. Impressive. We’ll have to wait [...]
Non-food to drive growth at Sainsbury’s November 11, 2009 J SAINSBURY has pinned its growth hopes on a bold expansion of its non-food offering, with plans to take on market leaders Tesco and Asda in larger-format stores. Unveiling a robust 18 per cent rise in first half profits to £307m yesterday, chief executive Justin King outlined a £2bn expansion programme for the next two [...]
THE TIPSTER December 21, 2009 MARKET liquidity is really thin this week and next due to the Christmas holidays, which means that you need to be aware of pockets of volatility. During this time of year you need to stick to the larger FTSE 100 equities that benefit from strong liquidity. Keep nice tight spreads or range trade the FTSE [...]
Terrace Hill restructures debt November 23, 2009 Property developer and investor Terrace Hill Group has arranged a £39.3m debt refinancing after three months of negotiations. The firm, which is active in food store developments and recently fixed £28m of forward financing for a Sainsbury’s store, has agreed £35.1m of the refinancing with an unnamed ‘major European bank’, with a revised maturity of [...]
Strong energy stocks fail to offset poor day for Vodafone January 7, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index inched lower by the close yesterday, as weakness in heavyweight Vodafone offset modest gains from energy stocks. Investors shrugged off a decision from the Bank of England which left interest rates on hold at 0.5 per cent and kept the scale of its asset purchase programme unchanged at £200bn. The FTSE [...]