The best take-away Christmas lunch: From Benugo’s hot roast turkey sandwich to Itsu’s “aggressively disgusting” pot of chicken December 1, 2014 December is upon us and it’s now perfectly acceptable to buy a take-away Christmas lunch – our sandwich committee checked out some of the most popular. Fred’s at Tesco Thanksgiving Sandwich Turkey, vegetable crisps, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, brie ★★★☆☆ Full marks for presentation but zero for practicality; trying to fit this [...]
London Report: New US pharma rules drag down UK drug firms September 23, 2014 THE FTSE 100 took a tumble yesterday as pharma shares were hit by overnight news that the US had announced new rules to reduce the benefits available to its companies buying overseas businesses for tax reasons. The FTSE 100 suffered a 1.44 per cent fall to 6676.08 points, its worst performance since 3 March. Poor economic [...]
Warren Buffett’s second “huge mistake”? IBM shares slide 7.5 per cent in pre-market trading as it admits fall in profits October 20, 2014 It has only been a few days since Warren Buffett admitted buying nearly four per cent of Tesco was a "huge mistake", but now another one of the legendary investor's big gambles is looking shaky. IBM said sales fell four per cent to $22.4bn (£13.9bn) in the three months to the end of September – [...]
Fenwick boosts board with Alastair Kerr and Christine Cross October 19, 2014 Fenwick, the family-owned department store chain, has bolstered its board by hiring two retail heavyweights, Alastair Kerr and Christine Cross, as non-executive directors. Cross spent the biggest part of her career at Tesco, where she held a string of senior non-food retailing roles between 1989 and 2003 under Lord MacLaurin and Sir Terry Leahy. She [...]
Payback time but Bank of England’s bonus clawbacks are rife with pitfalls July 30, 2014 Quite literally, yesterday it was payback time for Britain’s banking industry. Regulators’ demands that lenders must force staff to hand back bonuses awarded as long as seven years earlier delivers a belated sense of justice for those clamouring for more robust post-crisis retribution. The Bank of England’s timing could hardly have been better, coming [...]
Is Waitrose boss Mark Price right that the Big Four supermarkets are “20 years out of date”? October 22, 2014 James McGregor, director of Retail Remedy, says Yes. Mark Price is correct that structural shifts in retail are a far bigger threat to the Big Four (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons) than Aldi and Lidl. Yes, the discounters are a problem, but they’re not the big problem. The main issue is that people’s grocery shopping [...]
Tesco downgrades forecasts as Christmas trading disappoints January 9, 2014 TESCO admitted yesterday that full year profits could be as much as £150m below expectations as Britain’s biggest supermarket retailer reported another heavy decline in like-for-like sales over the Christmas trading period. The group, which is 21 months into a turnaround plan, said like-for-like sales fell 2.4 per cent in the six weeks to 4 [...]
Mike Ashley moves to oust Rangers chief Graham Wallace after taking £4.3m stake October 8, 2014 Retail tycoon Mike Ashley has bought five per cent of Scottish football club Glasgow Rangers as part of a move to oust the chief executive and a director from the board. Ashley, who owns Newcastle United and has made a series of investments in recent weeks including buying shares in Tesco and Debenhams, took the [...]
FTSE buoyed as Draghi speech reverses trend – London Report November 17, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index turned positive late yesterday after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said unconventional monetary policy measures could include buying sovereign bonds. Draghi also told the European Parliament the ECB will continue to do “whatever it takes” within its mandate to save the euro and that the single currency was irreversible. The [...]
Aldi UK profits jump nearly 66 per cent September 29, 2014 Group turnover at budget supermarket Aldi rocketed more than 35 per cent in the UK and Ireland during 2013, while pre-tax profits soared by nearly two-thirds, it said today. Sales at the discount grocer rose to £5.27bn for the year to December 31, 2013, up from £3.89bn the preceding year. Pre-tax profits, meanwhile, jumped [...]