JD Sports raises profit guidance by 10 per cent as Christmas sales soar January 14, 2016 JD Sports has increased its guidance on pre-tax profit, saying it could beat consensus by up to 10 per cent, after Christmas sales soared. Like-for-like store sales in the core sports fashion fascias were up 10.6 per cent in the five weeks to 2 January, JD said. As a result, it said headline profit before tax [...]
Office Christmas party etiquette: One in four UK employees have vowed to drink less this year for fear of embarrassing themselves or flirting with a colleague November 26, 2015 Deck the halls and so forth, the Christmas season is upon us, and that can only mean one thing: the City is gearing up for this year’s office Christmas bashes and (for some) the crippling shame that follows them. The office Christmas party is inevitably a messy affair, and it seems UK employees are worried [...]
Boxing day sales 2015: UK shoppers expected to spend over £3bn as John Lewis and Selfridges enjoy strong starts December 26, 2015 British shoppers are expected to spend heavily in this year's Christmas sales, with stores such as John Lewis already boasting of strong trading figures. According to figures from the Centre for Retail Research and vouchercodes.co.uk, around 22m shoppers will spend £3.74bn in sales this festive period – a six per cent increase on last year. Department [...]
Addison Lee introduces feature allowing you to “snooze” your minicab if you’re not ready to leave the Christmas party December 15, 2015 With less than ten sleeps to go til Christmas, London’s taxis and minicabs are bracing for the mayhem when peak Christmas party hits this weekend. But one of them has a new trick up their sleeve that might just help you and them both. Friday is expected to be the busiest day of the year [...]
Buoyant in Bexley or sad in Sutton: These are London’s happiest and saddest boroughs, according to Twitter January 21, 2016 If you live in Sutton and find it hard to drag yourself out of bed in the morning, it's not your fault, it turns out. A new survey, which has ranked London's boroughs from happiest to saddest based on their tweets, has found Sutton is London's most miserable borough. Enfield comes a close second, with Lewisham [...]
Robert Dyas Christmas advert wins weirdest ad of 2015 for “we’re gay, straight and bi” YouTube video December 13, 2015 We've had John Lewis's Christmas advert bonanza, then the Man on the Moon spoof (from Aldi, who else), as well as the curveball surprise hit of the Christmas ad season (a Spanish lottery ad, if you missed it). Now, we have the winner of the title for weirdest ad of the year (and not just Christmas). Of [...]
UK retail sales climbed in January, according to data from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG February 9, 2016 British retailers enjoyed some therapy last month as shoppers cast off the January blues and returned to the high street, according to new figures out today. UK retail sales rose by 2.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis from January 2015, when they had increased 0.2 per cent from the preceding year, according to figures from the [...]
HSBC down: Bank suffers online banking outage (again) after group targeted by cyber attackers January 29, 2016 Well this is embarrassing. HSBC's online banking services are suffering from yet another outage – and it looks like it's down to a cyber attack on the bank. Customers complained this morning that they could not access their accounts online, with many complaining that the outage came just as their first pay day since Christmas arrived. [...]
Tesco’s share price soars as supermarket beats expectations for Christmas trading as sales rise January 14, 2016 Tesco has beaten expectations for its Christmas trading, with sales up for the six weeks to 9 January, prompting the supermarket's share price to soar more than seven per cent this morning. The figures The UK's largest retailer grew group sales by 2.1 per cent in the six weeks to 9 January, with UK like-for-likes [...]
City A.M. advent calendar: Our review of 2015 in business news December 23, 2015 December is upon us, which can mean only one thing: time to make a cup of hot cocoa, recline beside a crackling fire, and review the year’s news. From the year in crowdfunding investments to the most diva-ish meltdowns of the year, we’ll have a new treat for you every day until Christmas. [custom id=”112″]