Ocado and M&S share prices drop as they complete £750m online delivery deal August 5, 2019 Investors battered Ocado and Marks & Spencer’s shares this morning as the supermarkets finalised details of a £1.25bn partnership. M&S’s share price fell 4.5 per cent while Ocado’s share price dropped as much as 4.4 per cent as M&S completed the £750m purchase of a 50 per cent stake in Ocado’s online delivery platform. Read [...]
Ocado pumps £17m into vertical farming joint venture June 10, 2019 Online grocer Ocado has invested £17m in the emerging vertical farming industry as it looks to bolster its technology offering. Vertical farming involves the production of food in indoor facilities, where crops are grown on a series of levels in a controlled environment. Read more: Ocado set to cut 400 jobs as it looks to [...]
Joules buys digital retailer for up to £12.5m in bid to expand in booming homeware market February 9, 2021 Joules has bought digital homeware retailer The Garden Trading Company for up to £12.5m, as it seeks to expand further into the thriving interiors market. Garden Trading sells its own home, garden and outdoor product designs through its direct-to-consumer platform and through 1,000 stockists across the UK. Joules said the acquisition will strengthen its position [...]
FTSE closes higher as US stocks pause after busy week for earnings April 30, 2021 The FTSE 100 closed higher today as the economic recovery optimism poised the index for its largest monthly gain since November last year. The blue-chip index rose 0.2 per cent, boosted by positive earnings updates from AstraZeneca and Smurfit Kappa. Meanwhile, the mid-cap FTSE 250 also rose by 0.56 per cent. Both indexes have risen [...]
Surging tech megacaps power Nasdaq to another peak September 1, 2021 A surge among tech megacaps powered the Nasdaq to another record high during early trading on Wall Street today. The US’s tech-heavy benchmark has since fallen back from its fresh peak, but is still up 0.65 per cent to 15.358.32 points during mid-morning exchanges. The blue-chip S&P 500 jumped 0.18 per cent to 4,531.01 points [...]
Waitrose axes 124 jobs amid closure of unprofitable stores September 16, 2020 Waitrose has announced plans to axe four unprofitable stores, putting 124 jobs at risk. The supermarket said it will close shops in Caldicot, Ipswich Corn Exchange and Shrewsbury, while a fourth branch in Wolverhampton will be sold to Tesco. Waitrose said today that trading at the stores had been “challenging” and it had not found [...]
Slowing US labour market recovery tempers Wall Street August 4, 2021 US shares dropped sharply on Wednesday morning after weaker than expected payrolls data tempered investor sentiment. The blue-chip S&P 500 dipped 0.42 per cent to 4,404, while the Dow Jones was clipped 0.78 per cent to 34,848. The tech-heavy Nasdaq edged down 0.06 per cent 14,752. Read more: Demand ‘peaks’ as US services recovery slows [...]
Marks & Spencer posts first loss in firm’s history November 4, 2020 Marks & Spencer posted its first loss in 94 years as a publicly listed company as clothing sales collapsed due to the coronavirus crisis. The high street stalwart reported a £87m pre-tax loss for the first half of the year. In the same period last year it made a profit of £158.8m in the same [...]
Barilla buys British fresh pasta maker Pasta Evangelists January 14, 2021 Barilla said on Thursday it had bought a majority stake in Britain’s Pasta Evangelists, re-entering the fresh pasta market and boosting its digital offering at time when the pandemic is driving demand for home deliveries of food and drinks. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal, but two sources close to the [...]
Outgoing Tesco boss Dave Lewis sees £6.4m pay packet voted down June 26, 2020 Dave Lewis’ tenure as Tesco’s chief executive looks set to end on a sour note after shareholders voted down the pay report that will give him £6.4m in compensation. Over 67 per cent of shareholders revolted against the report at the grocer’s annual meeting today, but as the vote is non-binding Lewis will still receive [...]