Sainsbury’s has sales boom to outpace rivals November 13, 2013 SHARES in Sainsbury’s rose three per cent yesterday, making it the biggest riser in the FTSE 100, after the supermarket chain posted a surge in half-year sales and profits. Sainsbury’s is the only one of the big four supermarkets to be growing its market share, with data from Nielsen last month confirming that it had [...]
Asda considers new George home brand October 9, 2013 BRITAIN’S second largest retailer Asda is considering launching homeware under the George brand. The Walmart–owned group has applied for the trademark George.home according to filings published last week on the Intellectual Property Office website. A spokesperson for Asda refused to confirm whether it was planning to launch a new homeware brand and said: “We register [...]
Microsoft says new tablet is faster than 95 per cent of laptops today September 23, 2013 Today's second tablet release (after Tesco's Hudl), tech giant Microsoft is now unveiling its Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 devices. Microsoft vice president surface Panos Panay says they've "been working on the second-generation of products for about 18 months". Panay says that the Pro 2 is "literally faster than 95 percent of laptops today" [...]
Sainsbury’s market share at decade high as profits rise November 13, 2013 Sainsbury's has said this morning that its grocery market share is at its highest in a decade, at 16.8 per cent. The supermarket has seen like-for-like sales growth for 35 consecutive quarters, with profits in the first half of 2013 up seven per cent, at £400m. (Release) Total sales including fuel were up 4.4 per [...]
How did the UK’s Warren Buffett make his money? October 15, 2013 The surprise departure of Neil Woodford has prompted some analysts to suggest that now is the time to exit Invesco Pereptual funds – led to such success by Woodford during his 25 years with Invesco. Hargreaves Lansdown has temporarily suspended Invesco Perpetual from their Wealth 150 index and recommend that new investors wait until the [...]
London Report: BP’s court win sees FTSE defy US shutdown October 3, 2013 THE FTSE 100 rose yesterday, boosted by heavyweight BP which won a rare legal battle related to its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but ongoing US government shutdown uncertainty sapped momentum. Energy firm BP – the UK’s fifth biggest company by market capitalisation – rose 1.1 per cent after it won a legal [...]
Asda sparks off a supermarket petrol price war October 29, 2013 ASDA fuelled a supermarket price war when it unveiled plans to cut petrol prices yesterday, causing other major British chains to quickly follow suit. The budget chain said that from tomorrow it would cut petrol to its lowest price this year, at 126.7p per litre on unleaded and 133.7p per litre for diesel. Sainsbury’s is [...]
Inside Track: My top tip for 2014: Deutsche Post will buy Royal Mail December 18, 2013 IT wouldn’t be the final column of a calendar year without some predictions for the next 12 months. Here are my top three: Royal Mail will complete a journey from being wholly-owned by the UK state to wholly-owned by a German enterprise within little more than 12 months. Deutsche Post won’t get it delivered cheap, [...]
Stobart profits get boost from Autologic buy October 24, 2013 BRITISH haulier Stobart Group’s first-half revenue from continuing operations jumped 33 per cent, helped by its acquisition of Autologic Holdings in mid 2012. The company, whose Eddie Stobart trucks deliver goods to retailers like Tesco, reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £13.8m in the six months ended 31 August, up five per cent from a [...]
Bottom Line: Tesco hopes to charm shoppers February 17, 2013 When Starbucks opened its first stores in Mumbai last October, queues around the Taj Mahal hotel stretched almost to the Gateway of India – the imposing arch on the harbour under which Boris Johnson held a bike-riding photo call a few weeks later. America’s frothy coffee seemed, at the time, to go down much better [...]