THE TIPSTER January 10, 2010 THERE’S been no shortage of news regarding the increased demand for natural gas by UK consumers as the cold snap continues to grip the country. As a result, BG Group (formerly British Gas) has got the year off to a cracking start, outperforming the FTSE-100 by over 100 per cent. But the cold (hopefully) won’t [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
JOHN LEWIS SMASHES RECORDS January 5, 2010 BELLWETHER retailer John Lewis posted a surge in sales over the Christmas period, including its best ever week’s trading, and forecast a slow recovery in consumer spending in 2010. “As the year progresses we expect to see a long slow recovery with the retailers who continue to focus on giving customers what they want prospering,” [...]
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 – [...]
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 [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 4, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES US PUBLIC PENSIONS FACE $2,000BN SHORTFALL The US public pension system faces a higher-than-expected shortfall of more than $2,000bn that will increase pressure on many states’ strained finances and crimp economic growth, according to the chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund. The estimate by Orin Kramer will fuel investors’ concerns over the deteriorating [...]
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 [...]
Improved GDP numbers will add to the growing confidence in sterling December 21, 2009 ALL the signs are pointing to an upward revision to UK GDP growth this morning. The consensus among City economists is for a smaller 0.1 percent fall in GDP in the third quarter. But there is a real possibility that growth was actually stronger and could even have been flat on the quarter. A 2 [...]
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 [...]