BA’s image recovers from threat of strike action January 5, 2010 JOHN Lewis yesterday announced strong Christmas sales – and certainly from the BrandIndex satisfaction scores, it seems that Waitrose customers were satisfied with their Christmas shopping. Graph One shows the scores of six leading supermarkets for the month of December. A PR DISASTER British Airways, meanwhile, had a disastrous December on the PR front. Strikes [...]
M&S sales rise but Waitrose wins day January 6, 2010 MARKS & Spencer yesterday 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 general merchandise [...]
Suits with the kecks factor January 28, 2010 FOR all its strengths, the trouser suit does not have the glamorous reputation of its older but sexier sister, the skirt suit. But if you’re the sort of woman who prefers to have her legs warmly encased in fabric during the winter months, and who wants to cross her pins without worrying about exposing any [...]
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 [...]
Cosy up in your house this winter December 17, 2009 1 Louis Philippe Day Bed, Grange, from £3,489, 020 7935 7000 2 Stag head candelabra, Joanna Wood, £94, www.joannawood.co.uk 3 Traditional balls wreath, Quintessentially Flowers, £75, www.quintessentiallyflowers.com 4 Ravello five arm candelabra, Heal’s, £220, www.heals.co.uk 5 Little red dot teapot, Fairmont and Main, £22, www.johnlewis.com 6 Grey shetland throw, John Lewis, £130, www.johnlewis.com 7 Hot [...]
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 [...]
Make a stylish statement with this season’s winter coats November 12, 2009 JOHN Lewis today announced some shocking news – sales of winter coats have shot up as a result of the current cold snap. Once you’ve recovered from this mind-bending news, you may realise that you are, in fact, one of the (shivering) women that are still without a proper coat for winter. If you’re holding [...]
BlackRock to invest in hospitals November 22, 2009 BlackRock, one of the biggest fund managers in the world, is looking to invest £20m into the UK’s fastest growing independent hospital operator. Health Investment Holdings Group (HIHL) runs hospitals via a partnership between doctors, nurses and ancillary staff. At the start of November, Labour voiced its backing for John Lewis-style partnerships to operate some [...]
Shoppers defy cold to set Christmas record December 21, 2009 SHOPPERS are coming out in force in the run up to Christmas, setting records in the capital and throughout the country. The New West End Company, representing more than 600 traders in central London, declared sales have been even higher than expected. Jace Tyrrell, head of communications, said: “We have had a good weekend. We [...]
Supermarkets score for both value and reputation December 15, 2009 In the highly-competitive world of supermarkets, there are two basic types of brand: those which are “cheap and cheerful”, which focus on low cost while maintaining reasonable quality; and those which cost more but make a feature of the higher quality products. These show up very clearly in the respective average BrandIndex scores from the [...]