M&B reports its biggest week of sales over Xmas January 30, 2014 CHRISTMAS saw pub group Mitchells & Butlers enjoy its biggest ever sales week, boosting the group’s trading for the year to date. The company, whose outlets include Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One, yesterday said sales at pubs open over a year or more were up two per cent on a year ago for [...]
Morrisons shares soar on sale reports February 19, 2014 Shares in Morrisons are spiking higher on news that of a potential sale of the supermarket. Reuters reports that bankers are working on a debt financing packages in the order of £5bn. The company is 9.5 per cent owned by its founding family, which is reported to have contacted buyout firms to gauge interest after [...]
Christmas fails to avert footfall slump for retail January 13, 2014 THE RECENT upturn for the British economy did not extend to high streets last year, as the full extent of the drop in footfall to bricks-and-mortar retailers during 2013 is revealed. The full figures for 2013 footfall released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Springboard show that Christmas sales failed to spur growth for [...]
Primark’s “excellent” Christmas bolsters AB Foods January 16, 2014 Primark has come in, as expected, as a winner over Christmas – proof that cheaper products can keep value in bricks and mortar. The budget high street store saw "excellent Christmas trading" as consumers continued to flock to its stores. Sales jumped 14 per cent at actual rates (12 per cent at constant rates) [...]
Profits at Next set to overtake Marks & Spencer March 20, 2014 PROFITS at fashion and homeware retailer Next are set to top those at rival Marks & Spencer for the first time after the group rounded-off a buoyant year of sales with a strong Christmas trading period. The group, which has over 800 shops in the UK and overseas, said sales rose 5.5 per cent in [...]
Facebook and Apple defy the tech critics April 23, 2014 TECHNOLOGY giants Facebook and Apple silenced talk of a tech bubble last night as they trumped all expectations, both delivering record earnings for the first quarter of 2014. Facebook’s booming mobile advertising business led the social network to revenues of $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in the quarter, above the expected $2.36bn, and profit of $642m, up more [...]
193,000 Brits had their Christmas dinner in an M&B pub January 30, 2014 Toby Carvery owner Mitchells & Butler sold an impressive 193,000 meals on Christmas Day, as more people opted to bypass the culinary pressure. Milder weather meant more customers ventured out this year, M&B said. The pub chain, which also owns All Bar One and Browns, sold 6.9m meals in the three weeks to 4 [...]
Asos storms forward as Christmas sales leap 38pc January 14, 2014 Asos' stellar Christmas has demonstrated the draw of online shopping over the high street – the fashion giant saw sales jump 38 per cent to £36m in the four months ended December. Analysts had predicted a 35 per cent rise in sales over the festive period; the store said it's enjoyed "another strong Christmas", with [...]
2014 brings bad news for Britain’s supermarkets January 9, 2014 Tesco has announced a disappointing set of results for the Christmas and New Year period. In the UK like-for-like sales were down 2.4 per in the six weeks to 4 January. Group sales for the period fell by 1.2 per cent. Chief executive Philip Clarke commented: We continued to invest in the most compelling offer [...]
Morrisons loses market share to its competitors January 14, 2014 WM MORRISON’S troubles over Christmas were further underscored yesterday by figures that showed that the grocer was the only one of the big four supermarkets to suffer a fall in overall sales in the past 12 weeks. Kantar Worldpanel data showed the retailer’s market share dropped to 11.5 per cent in the 12 weeks to [...]