Low fuel prices means it’s cheaper to run a car now than it was in 2013 June 6, 2016 One of a household's biggest bills is being held down by low oil prices. The average annual cost of running a car is around 22 per cent – or £622 – less than 2013, coming in at £2,197.42. The decline is due to the price of petrol at the pump, which makes up almost half of the costs of [...]
City A.M.’s journalists take a look at what 2016 has in store for the world of finance and business January 4, 2016 BANKING Strengthening outlook despite more regulatory bumps ahead Bank of England governor Mark Carney may have declared the banking crisis officially over at the end of last year, but 2016 looks to be far from a challenge-free year for Britain’s biggest banks. To be sure, all seven of the UK’s leading lenders passed the Bank’s [...]
Aldi sold one million turkeys this Christmas January 12, 2016 Traditional retailers might have had a tough Christmas trading period, but Aldi continues to prove it's no turkey. The German grocer today said it experienced its highest ever sales in a single day this festive period – peaking on 23 December – since launching in the UK 25 years ago. The discount retailer welcomed "hundreds of [...]
Game Digital share price drops after 77.3 per cent dividend slash and pre-tax profit fall March 23, 2016 Video game retailer Game Digital's share price dropped almost nine per cent after it released its half-year results and announced a 77.3 per cent cut in its interim dividend. The figures Game Digital's pre-tax profit in the half year to January fell 32 per cent to £22.5m. Revenue was down six per cent to £549.2m and the company [...]
Tesco, Asda and Morrisons named Christmas losers by Kantar as Waitrose, the Co operative, Aldi and Lidl crowned the winners January 12, 2016 There was little Christmas cheer for the supermarket sector – but some individual grocers outperformed the wider market, Kantar Worldpanel said this morning. The sector as a whole fell 0.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to 3 January, with Asda dropping the furthest – consumer spend at the Walmart-owned retailer was down 3.5 per cent. Tesco [...]
Blood on the shop floor as warm weather means high street retailers suffer worst Christmas performance since 2008, BDO says January 8, 2016 Retailers hoping for a last minute Christmas sales rush were bitterly disappointed, as figures suggest it was the worst festive period since 2008. According to BDO’s monthly high street sales tracker, retailers suffered a 5.3 per cent drop in year-on-year sales for December – the worst monthly results in seven years. No retail sub-sector survived unscathed. Sales of [...]
Britons’ thirst for prosecco gets sales fizzing at Virgin Wines January 19, 2016 Virgin Wines has posted its strongest Christmas on record after sales of prosecco bubbled over to replace champagne as the fizz of choice over Christmas and New Year. The online wine retailer said it sold 51,000 bottles of prosecco in December alone compared with 38,000 in 2014, which was five times the number of champagne [...]
E3 2015: Microsoft announces Xbox 360 games to be playable on Xbox One and reveals Gears of War 4, Halo 5 and Minecraft Hololens footage June 15, 2015 Microsoft will give gamers a Christmas present they've long been waiting for this year by making old Xbox 360 games playable on a new Xbox One model. At the E3 games convention in Los Angeles Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced backwards compatibility for the first time – meaning Xbox One owners will be able to [...]
Last minute Christmas shopping could lead to £1.3bn being spent on UK high streets, and that’s not the end of it: get ready for the Boxing Day and New Year sales December 21, 2015 If you've left your Christmas shopping to the last minute, you're not alone. Britons will spend £1.3bn on 23 December alone, which is set to be the busiest day on the high street. Expect crowds. Shoppers will make 37 million in-store transactions on Wednesday, up 10 per cent from 2014, and total spending is predicted to rise by three [...]
The count is in: These are the retail winners and losers for Christmas 2015 (according to Hargreaves Lansdown) January 15, 2016 After a busy few days chock-full of Christmas retail results, we're finally beginning to get a sense of who the winners and losers of 2015's festive period might be. Yesterday, Tesco surprised investors with better-than-expected results, rounding off a solid performance among the UK's traditional supermarket sector – although Asda is still yet to report. Marks & [...]