M&S LEADS HIGH STREET RECOVERY January 4, 2010 HIGH street bellwether Marks & Spencer is this week expected to report its first sales growth in two years, boosting hopes that British consumers have cast aside their gloom and started spending again. The retail giant will update the market on Wednesday on how it fared over Christmas, with analysts expecting M&S to post like-for-like [...]
CITY VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN LIKE FOR THE HIGH STREET THIS YEAR? January 5, 2010 ANDY STEWART | FIDESSA “It didn’t seem that busy, personally. Possibly slightly better than the shops might have anticipated earlier in the year. Hopefully the redundancies are coming to an end and it will have a knock-on effect.” CHARLOTTE HAZLETON | ICAP “I shopped the week before Christmas and did go to John Lewis – [...]
Peacocks fashion expansion after strong Christmas trade January 10, 2010 Budget fashion chain Peacocks added to signs of a robust Christmas for Britain’s retailers, helped by its tie-up with singer-turned-designer Pearl Lowe, and yesterday said it planned to step up its expansion. The firm, taken private in 2005 by a consortium including US hedge funds Perry Capital and Och-Ziff, said sales at stores open at [...]
M&S reports sales boost but warns of tough 2010 January 6, 2010 MARKS & SPENCER has reported a rise in sales for the three months to Christmas but warned of a tough year ahead. The retailer saw like for like sales rise by 0.8 per cent with record takings on food on 23 December. Food sales overall were 0.4 per cent up on the previous year with [...]
Q&A SHARE PLANS February 11, 2010 Q. I am an entrepreneur and I am thinking about a share scheme for my employees. What are the benefits for the employer and employee? A.Typically, employee share ownership schemes, or share option schemes, are used by small businesses for the same reasons that they are used by large multi-national corporations: to incentivise, reward and [...]
The prezzies kids will really want to find under the tree this year November 23, 2009 THE TOY WORLD has been set alight by a renewed desire for gift-buying after a year of belt-tightening and anxiety. And boy is there demand – John Lewis is doing a roaring trade (up 15 per cent on last year at this time), helped by sales of its toys of which the bestseller is the [...]
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 [...]
Battle for the festive pound is under way December 6, 2009 THE high street price war has heated up as shops focus both on luring shoppers away from the internet and beating competition from neighbouring shops. London’s West End shopping district enjoyed its best trade for two years over the weekend as 2m shoppers flocked to a traffic-free Oxford Street, spending over £200m in one day [...]
London’s best sales growth for 3 years December 13, 2009 LONDON enjoyed its best sales growth since October 2006, with central London retail sales for November 13.3 per cent higher on a like-for-like basis than a year ago, according to the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) out today. “These are great figures,” said Stephen Robertson, BRC’s director general. “These figures show that [...]
FSA’S SANTS MAKES LAST STAND FOR REGULATOR June 10, 2010 THERE’S nothing like going out fighting, is there? Yesterday marked the publication of FSA chief executive Hector Sants’ (right) last annual report at the helm of the regulator, which is under siege from politicians currently mulling whether or not it will have a future. Sants has never exactly made a secret of his feelings towards [...]