DFS to cut jobs at Dwell and Sofa Workshop as revenue falls £271m July 14, 2020 Furniture firm DFS has announced that it will cut jobs as part of a restructuring programme after the coronavirus pandemic caused revenue to drop £271m year-on-year to £725m. The company said that the cuts would take place at subsidiaries Dwell and Sofa Workshop, and were necessary in order to maintain DFS’ “future competitiveness”. The restructurings [...]
Easy does it for travel and leisure as they underpin the FTSE 100 today February 23, 2021 After a promising start European markets struggled to maintain their early market optimism today. However, some decent gains continue in the likes of travel and leisure stocks, with multi-month highs in a lot of cases. Over the last three days this renewed buoyancy has been evident in anticipation of a possible reopening, and with a [...]
Ocado joins FTSE 100 as Marks & Spencer narrowly escapes being kicked off May 30, 2018 Online retailer Ocado officially joined the FTSE 100 today, while embattled department store Marks & Spencer narrowly avoided dropping off the blue chip index. Ocado was promoted from the FTSE 250 in a quarterly reshuffle by index provider FTSE Russell that also saw bookmaker GVC promoted. Ocado’s FTSE jump comes after the retailer’s shares soared [...]
Aldi extends Deliveroo online grocery trial to London store June 12, 2020 Discount supermarket Aldi will extend its trial of delivering groceries to people’s homes via Deliveroo to include a store in Camden, London. Aldi, Britain’s fifth largest supermarket, launched a trial of the delivery model last month over eight outlets in the Midlands. It said the initial trial had gone well, and that it would therefore [...]
Mayfair Brexiteer among clutch of hedgies burnt by Ocado’s US-fuelled share surge May 17, 2018 One of Mayfair’s most revered short sellers today took a multi-million-pound hit from Ocado’s rocketing shares. Marshall Wace, which made millions from the collapse of Carillion, has one of the largest punts against the online retailer. With a net short position of one per cent, according to regulatory filings, Marshall Wace booked a paper loss [...]
M&S and Microsoft launch strategic partnership June 21, 2018 Marks & Spencer is teaming up with Microsoft in a bid to shake off its reputation as a digital laggard. A strategic partnership between the two companies will focus on testing the integration of Microsoft artificial intelligence (AI) tech into M&S stores and wider operations. Today’s announcement comes a day after a former M&S digital [...]
Audit watchdog closes investigation into Tesco accounting scandal June 8, 2020 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has announced the closure of its remaining investigation into accountants at Tesco, ending a six-year probe linked to an overstatement of profit by the supermarket chain. The FRC said this morning it was closing an investigation into Tesco’s announcement in 2014 that it had overstated profits by £263m, a figure [...]
Ocado delivers mixed results July 10, 2018 Ocado revealed a mixed set of first-half results. Revenue rose by 12.1 per cent to £799 million, while EBITDA slipped by 13.9 per cent to £38.9 million. When you factor in depreciation, amortisation, impairments and net finance costs the company swung to a loss of £9 million. The CFO expects the full-year pre-tax loss to [...]
Ocado’s tech prowess must be celebrated May 18, 2018 It took a mega deal with a US grocer for Ocado to prove that it’s no basket case. The online grocer saw shares soar more than 80 per cent during trading yesterday after it announced that Kroger, one of the world’s biggest grocery chains with annual sales of $122bn (£90bn), will now use Ocado’s technology to [...]
Firefighters put out blaze at another Ocado warehouse August 22, 2019 Firefighters were called to put out a small fire at an Ocado warehouse last night, just months after a fire at one of its flagship sites caused nearly £100m in damage. A waste packaging container caught fire, the company said in a statement this morning. Read more: Losses deepen as Ocado reveals cost of Andover [...]