All Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers cheers rise in profit amid food and drink demand November 20, 2019 All Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers has toasted a rise in full-year profit as rising appetite for its food and drinks offset fears of a slowdown in the casual dining sector. Shares in the firm jumped seven per cent in early morning trading. Read more: UK retail sales unexpectedly fall as economy slows The [...]
Turtle Bay’s profit dives in challenging casual dining market December 10, 2019 Caribbean-style restaurant chain Turtle Bay suffered a sharp drop in profit in its last trading period, following a pattern seen across the UK’s casual dining sector. Profit fell from £4.43m last year to £1.39m in the year ended 2 March, as the company grappled with economic uncertainty and rising costs. Read more: Chilango confirms plans [...]
Coronavirus lockdown: Boris Johnson tells millions to get back to work May 10, 2020 Thousands of workplaces across England have been told to open up from tomorrow and people will be able to spend more time outside from Wednesday, after Boris Johnson outlined the government’s three-stage roadmap for easing the coronavirus lockdown. The Prime Minister said during a pre-recorded address tonight that “anyone who can’t work from home” such [...]
Can asset management’s Covid-19 response help regain public trust? November 27, 2020 The tenth anniversary of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) back in 2018 sparked a deluge of articles recalling the days the financial system stared into the abyss. They questioned just how close we came to complete collapse, but also whether it could happen again. Had anything changed in the decade that followed? From some perspectives [...]
J D Wetherspoon sales growth slows again July 10, 2019 J D Wetherspoon expects like-for-like sales to rise at a slower rate in its pubs over summer as boss Tim Martin warned investors about a £3m non-cash loss this financial year. Read more: Glass half empty? Wetherspoon shares fall as sales growth slows Like-for-like sales are expected to grow 6.9 per cent for the 10 [...]
Shorter hours and portable loos: How London’s West End is reopening shops after lockdown June 15, 2020 The West End was one of the first areas of London to suffer the economic damage wrought by coronavirus, even before lockdown. By mid-February, people were already avoiding the usually bustling restaurants of Chinatown, following false reports that the disease could be caught more easily there. Now, after months of lockdown-induced hibernation, businesses across the [...]
Ex-Greene King chief exec pockets £850,000 after quitting August 8, 2019 Former Greene King chief executive Rooney Anand received a pay out of £850,000 after he quit the pub chain. The FTSE 250 brewery said the payment – equivalent to about a year’s remuneration – was made after Anand agreed to “various post-termination covenants” that were not part of his original contract. Read more: High yielding [...]
Whisky business: A wintry trip to the magical Highlands December 10, 2019 Winter sun, this ain’t. Trundling northwards through the Cairngorms towards Inverness, you could be forgiven for thinking you were travelling through an alien landscape. Grey, spare hills emerge from the drizzly low cloud; the “torrents and loud-poured floods” of Rabbie Burns’ poetry run high and violent. Not for nothing do the Scots have several different [...]
Hedge funds step up bets against retail landlord New River June 30, 2019 Hedge funds are betting against New River as concerns rise that it could be the latest retail landlord hurt by the industry’s struggles. The short position in the company has increased to 7.35 per cent compared to 5.41 per cent on 1 July last year, according to disclosed positions published by Shorttracker. Read more: New [...]
Seven firms suspend UK property funds as virus casts uncertainty over assets March 18, 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments and BMO have joined five other firms who have suspended their property funds after independent valuers introduced material valuation uncertainty clauses due to the coronavirus outbreak. The UK commercial property market is facing unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic. Valuation firms are now saying that they can no longer make reliable [...]