Mandelson may win in reshuffle May 20, 2009 Business secretary Lord Mandelson could be made foreign secretary, it emerged last night, as Gordon Brown plans a cabinet reshuffle for next month. He’s planning the moves as a damage-limitation exercise after the 4 June local and European elections. Mandelson’s grandfather, Herbert Morrison, was foreign secretary, and it is believed to be a dream job [...]
THE LONDON REPORT June 21, 2009 THE JUNE gauntlet of retail company statements is set to continue this week, with two UK electronics giants due to issue full-year 2009 results. DSG, Kesa and Inchcape are lining up to report, following last week’s announcements from Tesco, J Sainsbury, Whitbread and Morrison. Kesa Electricals, which runs electronics store Comet among its Europe-wide retail [...]
Retail giants set for battle June 14, 2009 SUPERMARKET heavyweights Tesco and J Sainsbury are set to battle it out this week for retail supremacy, when they both announce sales results for the past quarter. Tomorrow, Tesco is expected to report an underlying rise in sales of between 4 and 4.5 per cent, lagging behind J Sainsbury’s predicted 7 per cent growth. Tesco, [...]
Retail giants set for battle June 14, 2009 SUPERMARKET heavyweights Tesco and J Sainsbury are set to battle it out this week for retail supremacy, when they both announce sales results for the past quarter. Tomorrow, Tesco is expected to report an underlying rise in sales of between 4 and 4.5 per cent, lagging behind J Sainsbury’s predicted 7 per cent growth. Tesco, [...]
THE LONDON REPORT June 24, 2009 MINERS and banks were buoyed by better US durable goods data yesterday, offsetting weaker food retailers and producers and driving the FTSE 100 up by 1.2 per cent, or 49.96 points, to close at 4,279.98. The index has gained more than 23 per cent since hitting a six-year low in March, but is still down [...]
Quality brands are becoming more popular again June 16, 2009 FOR a while we saw the march of the “value” brands, as the recession helped Aldi and co make advances on their more expensive rivals. The graph shows what actually happened to brand values. We have created two baskets of brands – seven associated with lower-end or “value-for-money’ (Aldi, Morrisons, Primark, Matalan, RyanAir, Walls, Subway), [...]
THE TIPSTER June 14, 2009 AGGRESSIVE DISCOUNTING TO LIFT TESCOTHERE were rumours flying around the markets last week of a profit warning by Carrefour – the world’s second largest supermarket – but this side of the Channel, things in the grocery market are looking a lot rosier. Morrisons has been doing well, as has Sainsbury’s. But size does seem to [...]
Royal Mail heads for clash with Labour June 7, 2009 ROYAL Mail increased pressure on the government to quickly pass a bill to part-privatise the postal operator, warning that closing final-salary pension schemes for 150,000 staff will be at the top of its “options list” if no deal takes place. The threat comes amid frustration that the political process to get the privatisation through Parliament [...]
Bad shops are to blame for our withering High St June 24, 2009 THIS week a rare opportunity to watch television saw me glued to a programme presented by the self-styled “Queen of Shops” Mary Portas. Focusing on the death of that great British institution the High Street, Portas probed the decline of traditional retailers and voiced her fears for the future of our nation of shopkeepers and [...]
Consumer-related stocks to shed some light on spending June 14, 2009 RETAILERS will be very much in the spotlight again this week, with trading updates expected from the great and good of the supermarket world and retail sales data expected to shed more light on the high street picture. Tesco will get the ball rolling tomorrow when it releases its first quarter sales data, but is [...]