Clothes push retail sales up 0.3pc in April May 20, 2010 IMPROVING clothing and department store sales offset flat food sales to push British retail revenues slightly higher than expected in April, according to the Office for National Statistics. Including petrol and diesel, high street sales rose 0.3 per cent last month, above analysts’ forecasts of 0.2 per cent and up 1.8 per cent year-on-year. The [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 15, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES INVESTORS RAISE FEARS ON “STEWARDSHIP CODE” As the Financial Reporting Council prepares to issue a shareholders’ best practice code, industry groups and institutional investors say they are worried it will become another list of boxes to tick. The FRC’s consultation on the world’s first official “stewardship code” closes on Friday and it expects [...]
The grocer who says this year will test retailers as well as shoppers May 31, 2010 Much like the rest of the country, the chief executive of the country’s third largest supermarket group is trying to make up his mind about the coalition government. At the start of the election campaign Sainsbury’s boss Justin King was one of many who backed Tory plans to scrap national insurance hikes for employers, a [...]
Allan Leighton: the man behind Crozier’s move January 28, 2010 ITV chairman Archie Norman yesterday said he had scoured the world for a new chief executive before finally settling on Adam Crozier. But the man he eventually chose came via a more direct route, through his friendship with long-time friend and former Asda colleague Allan Leighton. Norman – chief executive and then chairman of Asda [...]
Budget goods boost Asda’s market share August 13, 2009 WAL-MART owned Asda yesterday said it was stealing market share from other supermarkets as customers shopped around for low prices during the downturn. Asda said over three months to 31 July it had grown its market share of the grocery sector to 17 per cent, up from 16.7 per cent the quarter before. Tesco continues [...]
Squarestone in AIM float February 23, 2010 PROPERTY group Squarestone Brasil is planning to raise up to £250m in what would be the largest float on London’s Alternative Investment Market in a year. Squarestone plans to invest the cash in new Brazilian shopping-mall developments and future acquisitions. The company will be chaired by Asda veteran Tony Campbell with Liberum Capital acting as [...]
Sainsbury’s sales hit by slowing growth March 24, 2010 SAINSBURY’S has reported its smallest rise in underlying quarterly sales in almost five years. Britain’s third biggest grocery chain said stores open at least one year rose 1.7 per cent, excluding fuel, in the fourth quarter. That was down from 3.7 per cent in its third quarter and the smallest rise since the first quarter [...]
Flight to quality in stores February 2, 2010 Intense competition among Britain’s top grocers has hit sales growth at smaller hard discounters Aldi and Lidl, while Asda has suffered most from recent severe weather, market researchers said yesterday. Kantar Worldpanel, the new name for TNS Worldpanel, said sales at Britain’s grocers rose 5.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to 24 January, helped [...]
High street sales bounce back February 25, 2010 HIGH street spending bounced back this month as shoppers returned in force for the first time since the big freeze. The quarterly Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report showed that 46 per cent of retailers said business was up in February 2010 compared with the same period last year. Sales of clothes and household goods [...]
Walmart sees quarterly profits surge February 18, 2010 WALMART the world’s biggest retailer, yesterday reported a 22 per cent jump in profits for its fourth quarter, but left investors underwhelmed with its outlook for the current quarter. The world’s largest retailer made consolidated net income, or after-tax profits, of $4.6bn (£2.9bn) in the three months to 31 January on a 4.5 per cent [...]