A busy week on the high street as retailers report September 13, 2009 It’s time to hit the high street this week, with a whole host of retailers updating the market. In keeping with that theme, the Office of National Statistics will tomorrow release the Retail Prices Index data for August, which is expected to show that prices fell 1.5 per cent year-on-year, compared to a decline of [...]
MBAs give you a flexibility that employers love September 9, 2009 IF there are people who doubt the value of an MBA, the Home Office isn’t one of them. A few years ago it introduced a points-based system for those wishing to immigrate to the UK. The receipt of a Nobel prize, Oscar or an Olympic medal gets you 25 points. If you have an MBA, [...]
Jaegar boss Tillman lands Aquascutum September 8, 2009 LUXURY trench coat brand Aquascutum yesterday returned to British ownership after fashion entrepreneur Harold Tillman and Jaegar chief executive Belinda Earl announced a deal to buy the firm. Tillman, famed for his turnaround of upmarket high street store Jaegar, has said he plans to expand Aquascutum in overseas markets. Tillman said: “There are markets where [...]
Channel Five owner posts a profit slump August 31, 2009 GERMANY’S Bertelsmann posted a 30 per cent drop in first-half operating profit due to a decline in advertising and consumer spending and said cost cuts had held off worse results. The owner of Channel Five parent company RTL Group, which reported results last week, and publisher Random House, implemented strict cost savings earlier in the [...]
The king of the home delivered pizza says timing is everything August 20, 2009 YOU can tell when a business is doing well, when despite the recession, its plans to open a new headquarters five times the size of its existing base are still on track. That is the happy position Chris Moore, the chief executive of delivery chain Domino’s Pizza, finds himself in. His new 100,000 sq ft [...]
Bidders circle British Land’s Broadgate August 18, 2009 BRITISH Land yesterday revealed it had been approached by several buyers interested in snapping up a 50 per cent stake in Broadgate, its iconic City development. US private equity group Blackstone has been tipped to beat rivals to a share of the 16 office buildings close to Liverpool Street Station. Yesterday finance director Graham Roberts [...]
Time is right for Broadgate stake sale August 18, 2009 NOTHING symbolised the post Big Bang world in the City more than the development of the Broadgate complex near Liverpool Street and Moorgate in the 1980s. The ice rink and the gleaming buildings fitted out for the likes of Shearson Lehman and SGWarburg were the focal point for the new City, before even the first [...]
How Mr Wigan has put JJB and the City behind him to live the dream August 16, 2009 EVAN at 72 Wigan serial entrepreneur Dave Whelan still gives an impression of a man in a hurry. Whelan moves at a sprightly pace between tables in the director’s box at Wigan Athletic, the Premier League football club he owns, and his trim figure still hints at a man who played professional football for Blackburn, [...]
Managing a strategy for career change August 12, 2009 IT’S HARDLY unusual for people in their late twenties to decide that the area they’re working in isn’t actually the career they want to pursue. Tristan Smith had been working successfully in the airline industry for eight years – even moving from her home town of Sydney, Australia to the US city of Chicago – [...]
FORGET CANNES: CANARY WHARF’S FILM FESTIVAL IS COMING TO TOWN August 12, 2009 CANARY Wharfers should dust off their finery: there’s a film festival coming to town. OK, so it’s not quite Cannes – there’ll be no red carpet, much to the disappointment of preen-happy financiers, and designer dresses and tuxes are far from obligatory. But the Canary Wharf Film Festival, taking place between 3 and 7 September, [...]