A two-speed high street January 9, 2014 A CLEAR split between Britain’s winners and losers in the battle for consumers’ cash this Christmas emerged yesterday, as three of the biggest retail chains revealed worse-than-expected trading. Poor results from Tesco, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer added to dreary updates from Sainsbury’s and Mothercare, with heavy discounting, weak consumer spending and the rising discount [...]
Arm Holdings announces new chairman January 27, 2014 Chip designer Arm Holdings has announced that Stuart Chambers, current chairman of Rexam and a non-executive director of Tesco, will take over as chairman designate from 1 March. Chairman Sir John Buchanan is stepping down because of a medical condition. Buchanan’s exit marks more change for the Cambridge-based FTSE company. Last March it said goodbye [...]
Kickstarter says hackers stole customer data February 16, 2014 KICKSTARTER, the crowdfunding platform used by thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises, admitted yesterday that US law enforcement had informed it of a major data breach last week. The company said that user’s credit card information had not been accessed, but that some usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords had been compromised. “We set a [...]
Supermarkets are getting crushed March 13, 2014 Morrisons has plummeted into the red, announcing a £176m pre-tax profit loss, having made a £897m profit a year earlier. The supermarket’s planning a £1bn property selloff over the next three years, in a bid to ameliorate the situation. It’s issued a dire profit warning, too, which has been described this morning on the BBC [...]
Game’s market share boosted by Playstation 4 and Xbox One January 26, 2014 THE LAUNCH of Sony’s latest console, the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Microsoft’s Xbox One at the end of last year has helped boost retailer Game’s share of the entertainment market, new research shows. Figures from Kantar Worldpanel released today show that Game claimed eight per cent of the market in the 12 weeks to 22 [...]
Hedge your stocks with short-term bonds February 4, 2014 AFTER a volatile start to 2014 for equities, with the MSCI world index yesterday down more than 5 per cent year-to-date, investors will understandably be thinking about capital preservation. And while the prospect of monetary tightening in the West will be problematic for fixed-income, a careful selection of bonds could help to dampen portfolio volatility. [...]
5 things you didn’t know about new Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe January 29, 2014 Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King is leaving the supermarket in July – but what do we know about his replacement and current commercial director, Mike Coupe?1. A country boy at heart, Coupe was born in Watford in 1960 but was brought up in West Sussex. His mum was a housewife and his dad was an inventor [...]
5 things you didn’t know about new Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe January 29, 2014 Sainsbury's CEO Justin King is leaving the supermarket in July – but what do we know about his replacement and current commercial director, Mike Coupe? 1. A country boy at heart, Coupe was born in Watford in 1960 but was brought up in West Sussex. His mum was a housewife and his dad was an [...]
Lidl boss eyes 600 new stores December 1, 2013 LIDL’s UK managing director has announced plans to double the discount chain’s number of stores over the coming years. On the growth of Lidl’s 600 current stores Ronny Gottschlich said “If I could have the 1,200 in the next three years, then I would have it in the next three years. But it is clear [...]
Why Stagecoach is so successful in the US December 11, 2013 US MARKETS are often seen as the place British businesses go to die, which makes Stagecoach’s transatlantic success something of a surprise. The firm operates around 2,600 buses and coaches in the US and Canada, as well as offering commuter and school bus services. And while Stagecoach is already a key player in the UK, [...]