In defence of One Direction: Why high earnings are no reflection of morality April 19, 2013 THE One Direction backlash has begun. Yesterday, critics reportedly dubbed the boy band’s £25m earnings last year “insensitive” and “grossly immoral”. Not only are millions of Directioners now up in arms, but an economics howler was committed to boot. Criticisms like these forget why it is that people get rich. Earnings are not a reflection [...]
Tesco’s Higginson to join Poundland as chairman July 11, 2012 Poundland, the discount chain, has hired Tesco executive Andrew Higginson as chairman. Higginson, who was group finance and strategy director at Tesco for 11 years before taking on the role of head of retailing services officially retires from the grocer in september. He was also appointed chairman of N Brown, the catalogue retailer, last week.
Amazon gains over Christmas January 23, 2013 AMAZON tightened its grip on CD, DVD and game sales at Christmas, taking a quarter of the market at the expense of the high street. Research from Kantar Worldpanel Entertainment found that the online retailer took 23.4 per cent of entertainment sales in the 12 weeks to 23 December, up from 20.3 per cent last [...]
Aldi hitting the mainstream as customers seek value January 8, 2013 THIS time last year poor results at Tesco shocked investors and the grocery sector, although followers of YouGov’s BrandIndex and this column would have been aware of their problems a month earlier. With the all-important Christmas season now behind us I’ve taken a look back at 2012 to see what the big customer perception stories [...]
Sugar drinks levy: More interference won’t end obesity February 18, 2013 AMONG the ten point plan published yesterday by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in its “prescription for the nation’s medical crisis”, the headline-grabber was a tax on sugary drinks. An additional 20 per cent charge “would be an experimental measure, looking at price elasticity, substitution effects, and to what extent it impacts upon consumption [...]
Horse burger fears spread January 16, 2013 SAINSBURY’S, the Co-op and ASDA yesterday cleared their shelves of burgers supplied by companies at the centre of a horse meat scandal. There is no evidence the three supermarkets sold contaminated products but they have taken the precautionary measure following Tuesday’s revelation that the meat content in a sample of Tesco’s Everyday Beef Burgers was 29 per cent [...]
Every little helps as Tesco tie-up pushes up earnings at Ageas UK August 6, 2012 AGEAS UK, the British arm of the Belgian insurer, yesterday announced a strong set of results boosted by earnings growth at its joint venture with Tesco. Pre-tax profits for the first half of 2012 hit £64.1m, an increase of 81 per cent on the same period last year while the total combined ratio – a [...]
Asda to expand George abroad as UK sales slow February 22, 2013 ASDA is to expand its fast-growing clothing brand George into Europe, Britain’s second largest supermarket revealed yesterday, as it reported a slowdown in fourth quarter sales. The Walmart-owned group said it will launch the brand’s UK website in 24 countries by September after George enjoyed “a record year”. It also plans to open more stores [...]
Tesco sales fall June 11, 2012 Tesco, the world’s third-biggest retailer, has seen a drop in quarterly underlying sales in its main British market, showing its recovery plan following a shock profit warning in January is taking time to gain traction. The supermarket group, with over 6,000 stores in 14 countries, said consumer confidence was subdued across all of its markets, [...]
January Bank rates are likely to stay steady January 7, 2013 THE European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to keep interest rates on hold when it meets for its first policy meeting this year, analysts predict. “We believe the continued improvement in the forward-looking survey data will have been sufficient to stay the hand of those on the council who last month were willing to wait [...]