Exclusive: Walkie Scorchie, more like: City A.M. uses the rays of the Walkie Talkie building to fry an egg | City A.M. July 22, 2016 The developers of the Walkie Scorchie skyscraper – aka 20 Fenchurch Street – had hoped their building would be known for its striking design and its blue chip clients. But instead City A.M. has revealed how the building has begun emitting a curious ray of light, started melting cars, set a carpet on fire and [...]
We’ve hit peak stuff: Why we now spend on “doing” rather than “things” May 17, 2016 Earlier this year Ikea’s head of sustainability suggested the West was approaching “peak stuff” – the idea that consumer appetite to own ever more goods was probably waning. Indeed it seems that we’re seeing a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour from buying products to spending money on experiences. We’ve been keeping an eye on this trend at Visa [...]
Ikea enjoys record year fuelled by Chinese and Russian shoppers September 10, 2015 Furniture giant Ikea reported another record year yesterday after enjoying strong demand for its flat-pack furniture across all markets. The Swedish company reported an 11 per cent increase in full-year sales to a record €31.9bn (£23.2bn) compared with the previous year. Sales at stores open more than a year grew by 5.1 per cent in [...]
Banking on beds pays off for Ikea UK as annual sales rise to £1.6bn and market share grows to 7.7 per cent November 24, 2015 Retailer Ikea has remained popular on British shores, with Ikea UK today revealing annual sales of £1.6bn for the financial year ended 31 August 2015, up 11 per cent. “We are delighted to have achieved double digit growth for the second year running and to be in our fourth consecutive year of growth here in [...]
2015 Shonky awards: Samsung and Ikea have the shoddiest products, according to consumer group Choice October 7, 2015 Big name brands Coca-Cola, Ikea and Samsung have walked away with a new award – but it might not be one they boast about to their customers. The 2015 Shonky Awards go to companies "that have flouted consumer protection laws, sold products that were faulty by design, and shown blatant disregard for consumer safety", according to [...]
More BHS bidders revealed following deadline for offers May 18, 2016 Hilco Capital has been named as one of the bidders for beleaguered department story chain BHS, following last week's deadline for offers. BHS went into administration last month, and the company had reportedly attracted the interest of five suitors hoping to buy the whole of the high street retailer ahead of last week's bid deadline. Hilco, reported by ITV [...]
Elon Musk’s Tesla to snap up the US’ biggest solar energy provider June 22, 2016 Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shocked markets yesterday by announcing plans to merge his electric car maker with America's biggest solar provider. Tesla Motors wrote in a blog post late last night that it has offered to buy SolarCity in an all-stock deal worth as much as $2.8bn (£1.9bn), more than the solar provider's market capitalisation of $2.1bn. Read more: Ikea [...]
This is what our kitchens will look like in the future, according to Ikea July 27, 2015 Our kitchens are set to transform dramatically over the next 10 years, according to a futuristic installation created by Ikea. The Concept Kitchen 2025, which is on display at EXPO Milan 2015, shows how our cooking, cleaning and waste disposal will become much more technology-dependant over the coming years. Read more: 14 plans for [...]
A family affair: How Ben and Ollie Black built their childcare empire June 6, 2016 Two minutes with the Black brothers and Laurel and Hardy come up. “You know, ‘another fine mess you’ve got me into’,” says Oliver Black, describing how he initially conceived of working with his brother. “I spent Christmas trying to convince Ollie that I knew about buying a company,” says Ben Black. The pair bought failing childcare [...]
Five suitors emerge for the whole of troubled BHS May 10, 2016 BHS has attracted five expressions of interest to buy the whole of the high street retailer. The interest was registered ahead of today's 5pm deadline, according to a spokesperson for the company. There have been a higher number of expressions of interest for specific parts of the business, with most thought to be keen to [...]