Cadbury sales jump as Brits turn to treats June 18, 2009 CHOCOLATE giant Cadbury yesterday reported improved trading in April and May, as a recession-hit Britain snapped up its new “bitesize” range and relaunched Wispa bars. The world’s second-largest confectioner said it was cashing in on the frugal times with the bitesize bags of chocolate-coated sweets as a low-cost treat for consumers, who tend to stay [...]
BANKING WOE PUTS EURO ON THE BACK FOOT June 17, 2009 JANE FOLEYRESEARCH DIRECTOR, FOREX.COM AFTER months of heavy handed fiscal and monetary stimulus, the fact that central bankers and finance ministers are turning their attention to exit policies offers some reassurance that conditions must be returning to normal. This is not, however, a time for complacency. Over the past couple of months, investors’ fears have [...]
Majestic profits hit as City champagne spending loses fizz June 15, 2009 WINE warehouse chain Majestic Wine saw its profits tumble last year as the recession took its toll, with champagne sales to the business world performing performing particularly badly. Majestic said yesterday its core pre-tax profit fell 22.3 per cent to £12.7m over the year to end of March, while sales grew 2.4 per cent to [...]
London retailers get a capital boost while rest of UK drops June 14, 2009 DESPITE recovery in the UK retail sector slowing in May, London continued to outperform the rest of the country, according to fresh data out today from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Like-for-like sales for May were 1.6 per cent higher in London than a year earlier, compared with a 0.8 per cent fall across the [...]
UK’s economy ready to grow June 14, 2009 BRITAIN’S economy is stabilising, with the worst of the recent quarterly falls in GDP having passed into history, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will today predict. But the employers’ group warns that it will take until the beginning of next year before there is a return to economic growth. The report is published a [...]
Halfords gets a boost from Brits on bikes June 10, 2009 HALFORDS, the car maintenance and bicycle retailer, yesterday reported a 2.4 per cent rise in full-year profits to £92.4m as the demand for bikes and camping equipment surges in the downturn. Finance director Nick Waller said: “The demand for bikes is sustainable, people are using cycling to beat congestion, for economic reasons and increasingly to [...]
ABI: there is still faith in City bosses June 8, 2009 PUBLIC fury over the financial crisis and “fat cat” bonuses has failed to derail confidence in bosses at the City’s major companies, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) will claim today at its biennial conference. The ABI will unveil the results of a major national survey on economic sentiment suggesting that the majority of people [...]
WH Smith sales better than hoped June 4, 2009 WH Smith, the British newspaper, books and stationery retailer, reported a better than expected four per cent fall in underlying third quarter sales yesterday and said it was confident of its full-year prospects. The group, which trades from 557 high street stores across the UK, said sales at stores in its town centre businesses open [...]
UK SERVICES SECTOR OUT OF RECESSION June 3, 2009 A SURPRISE return to growth for the services sector recorded in May boosted hopes yesterday, suggesting that Britain could be the first major economy to recover from the financial crisis. The CIPS/Markit UK services sector purchasing managers’ index (PMI) released yesterday recorded a reading of 51.7, above the critical 50 mark that separates expansion from [...]
Consumer confidence improving June 2, 2009 CONSUMER confidence in the UK enjoyed its biggest rise in almost two years during April, according to Nationwide. The UK’s largest mutual said its consumer confidence index rose eight points to reach 50 in April, with 26 per cent of survey respondents saying they expect the economic situation to be better in six months time. [...]