Dido Harding slammed for ‘three per cent’ Test and Trace success rate November 10, 2020 Baroness Dido Harding has been slammed by MPs for the “three per cent” success rate of England’s contact tracing programme, as the Test and Trace chair faced her first formal grilling in the Commons. Health and social care committee chair Jeremy Hunt pressured Harding to explain why only “three per cent of the total theoretical [...]
All I want for Christmas… is for retailers to get real and rethink their festive ads November 20, 2018 TV has long been a staple of Christmas advertising, highlighted by the millions of people who look forward to the annual John Lewis spot. This year, the retailer reportedly spent millions of pounds on a cameo from Elton John, though it is being tight-lipped about exactly how much. However, while the department store’s festive offering [...]
Retail administrations rise for the second consecutive year January 5, 2019 The number of retail administrations has risen for the second year in a row after 125 retailers collapsed in 2018. Administrations rose six per cent last year from 118 in 2017, and 26 of the retailers that collapsed were large brands, compared to 17 the year before. There was a 53 per cent increase in [...]
Westfield Stratford and Westfield London boost Christmas shopping footfall January 4, 2019 Westfield London and Stratford City saw record festive footfall this year, helping to dispel fears of retail gloom over the Christmas period. Christmas footfall was up 11 per cent year-on-year with 15.6m visitors visiting the centres from the start of November, the owner of the two shopping centres, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, announced today, while Boxing Day shoppers hit 350,000 [...]
Could Capita’s move to put workers to boards fix capitalism’s crisis? May 14, 2019 Capitalism is being questioned in Britain more intensely than for decades. Some want to destroy it. Others believe that it is the only economic system which works, but want to reform it. I am in the latter camp. Part of the debate around Brexit has centred on preserving workers’ rights, enshrined in EU law. But rights [...]
Retail round up: What’s happening on the high street? January 11, 2019 Not as bad as it could have been. That’s the general feeling about high street performance over Christmas after major retailers and the supermarkets published their festive figures this week. The British Retail Consortium says that 2018 was the worst Christmas for retails for 10 years but, as ever, the figures show there are winners [...]
Super Thursday: Embattled retailers could learn from the Tesco turnaround plan January 10, 2019 It wasn’t only children who traditionally looked forward to Christmas: time was when Yuletide sales could be guaranteed to give a substantial boost to Britain’s retailers. No longer. A slew of dismal results published today showed Christmas figures sharply down for a number of household names including M&S and Debenhams, in what the British Retail [...]
Raab: Stop blaming Brexit for poor business performance September 13, 2018 Brexit secretary Dominic Raab today told businesses to stop blaming Brexit for poor performance and “take responsibility”. His comments come in the wake of John Lewis posting a 99 per cent drop in profits in its half-year results this morning, which it partly attributed to Brexit. Read more: Bank of England: Hold fire until there [...]
Raab: Stop blaming Brexit for poor business performance September 13, 2018 Brexit secretary Dominic Raab today told businesses to stop blaming Brexit for poor performance and “take responsibility”. His comments come in the wake of John Lewis posting a 99 per cent drop in profits in its half-year results this morning, which it partly attributed to Brexit. Read more: Bank of England: Hold fire until there [...]
Outsourcing giants to discuss contracts reform with Whitehall officials February 24, 2020 The country’s biggest outsourcers will hold Whitehall talks with top civil servants to discuss changes to the public sector’s procurement process. Twenty chief executives – from companies such as BT Group, Capita and G4S – will meet with civil service chief executive John Manzoni tomorrow. City sources told Sky News the meeting will address “new [...]