Baroness Helena Morrissey quits St James’s Place to become AJ Bell chair March 16, 2021 Baroness Helena Morrissey has stood down from her role on St James’s Place’s board to become chair of investment platform AJ Bell. Baroness Morrissey will succeed Les Platts as AJ Bell’s chair at the company’s next annual meeting in January 2022. In the meantime, she join the board as chair designate in July 2021. Baroness [...]
Marks & Spencer posts first loss in firm’s history November 4, 2020 Marks & Spencer posted its first loss in 94 years as a publicly listed company as clothing sales collapsed due to the coronavirus crisis. The high street stalwart reported a £87m pre-tax loss for the first half of the year. In the same period last year it made a profit of £158.8m in the same [...]
Superdry poaches new finance chief from Marks & Spencer’s clothing division February 11, 2021 Fashion retailer Superdry has poached a senior Marks & Spencer director to be its new chief financial officer. Shaun Wills, who has served as the finance director of M&S’s beleaguered clothing and home division since 2018, will join Superdry at the end of April. Wills, who has worked in the retail sector for 30 years, [...]
Marks & Spencer to axe 7,000 jobs within three months amid pandemic August 18, 2020 Marks & Spencer is set to slash 7,000 jobs by December in a huge restructuring brought about by the pandemic, it said today. The high street giant, which was struggling prior to coronavirus, will focus the cuts in its central support centre, regional management and UK stores. It comes on top of 950 job cuts [...]
Rosé Prosecco: Why this once-banned drink was the star of 2020 June 18, 2021 I think we can all agree that 2020 had few highlights but let me put this forward as a big hitter… Pink Prosecco. Yes, you heard correctly, rosé Prosecco was only legalised in 2020 which means last year marks the first harvest and creation of an entirely new type of wine. History was made and [...]
FTSE 100 slides despite strong earnings but Wall Street picks up May 26, 2021 The FTSE 100 slipped today despite a strong set of corporate earnings on a slow day for Europe’s markets. Across the Atlantic, however, Wall Street showed signs of gains after another positive start for tech stocks. London’s blue-chip index fell 0.1 per cent over the course of the day, a second straight session of losses [...]
Begbies Traynor buys chartered surveyors as acquisition spree continues February 8, 2021 Professional services firm Begbies Traynor has bought London-based chartered surveyors Hargreaves Newberry Gyngell (HNG), in a deal worth £1m. HNG employs 13 staff, who will all integrate with Eddisons, Begbies Traynor’s property advisory and transactional services division. The acquisition is for an initial cash consideration of £0.4m on a cash free, debt free basis. Contingent [...]
Ocado to make $300m in acquisitions as digital grocer bumps forecasts November 2, 2020 Digital grocer Ocado has announced two acquisitions worth nearly $300m (£232m) and bumped up its full year earnings forecast, it announced this morning. The retail darling said that it had continued to see strong sales growth during the third quarter as people stuck to digital shopping amid to the coronavirus pandemic. Shares in Ocado rose [...]
Ocado sales surge on new M&S deal amid online shopping shift October 13, 2020 Ocado added thousands of new customers following the launch of its partnership with Marks & Spencer amid a sustained rise in the number of consumers choosing to shop online. In the 12 weeks to 4 October, Ocado increased sales by 41.9 per cent as the ecommerce retailer was buoyed by its new deal with M&S [...]
High-profile tech founders back $111m London startup fund November 30, 2020 A string of big-name tech founders including former Google boss Eric Schmidt are backing a new fund to invest in startups in the US and across Europe. London-based Firstminute Capital today unveiled a $111m (£83m) venture capital fund after securing support from some of the world’s top tech executives. More than 70 founders of billion-dollar [...]