Competition watchdog probes Pork Farms for having too big a slice of the pie December 18, 2014 The competition watchdog has threatened to launch an investigation into Pork Farms’ acquisition of rival Kerry Foods over fears that the new company will have its fingers in too many pies. Pork Farms, which makes scotch eggs, pies and sausage rolls for the major supermarkets including Marks & Spencer bought Kerry Foods’ chilled savoury [...]
Tesco is winning at Valentine’s Day. Here’s why February 11, 2015 Valentine's Day is just around the corner and what says love more than multinational retailers pushing their pink heart-shaped products you neither want nor need? Absolutely nothing. That's why between now and Saturday we will all be bombarded with adverts for all the chocolates you can eat (before the cocoa runs out) recipes for two, [...]
Davos 2015 World Economic Forum: Top execs gather for grand old Duke of York January 22, 2015 It takes a lot to overshadow a quantitative easing programme on the scale of the one announced by the European Central Bank yesterday, but the Duke of York’s private life somehow managed it. Squeezed eight-deep into the Salon Rotary at the Belvedere Hotel, bosses from BP, Citi, Marks & Spencer and Diageo turned up to [...]
Is today a turning point for Marks & Spencer’s share price? November 5, 2014 Marks & Spencer's share price has soared 8.3 per cent this morning, suggesting that investors were pleasantly surprised by its better-than-expected results. Although it marked its 13th quarter of declines, the 3.4 per cent drop in clothing was lower than consensus. Analysts this morning are suggesting this could be, if not the beginning of [...]
Marks and Spencer likely to join Next and Tesco in slump as like-for-like sales decline November 3, 2014 The slump in British retail is set to hit Marks and Spencer hard this week, after poor financial results from rival Next and supermarket Tesco. Weak sales figures will pile increasing pressure on chief executive Marc Bolland – like-for-like sales have already fallen for the past 13 quarters, despite the growing economic recovery. The consensus [...]
Peppa Pig maker Entertainment One splashes cash on US deal as finance boss Giles Willits talks expansion plans January 6, 2015 Giles Willits is sitting in the boardroom of Entertainment One’s offices in west London with a family of Peppa Pig cuddly toys gazing up at him. The British TV phenomenon – Peppa Pig, that is – is one of the production group’s most successful exports. But today pigs are forgotten and the group’s jolly finance [...]
M&S is having an identity crisis: Only radical action can save it now July 8, 2014 Thousands of articles have been written about, and just as many reasons given for, the ongoing struggles of Marks & Spencer (M&S). The latest one, given only yesterday by none other than the chief executive himself, Marc Bolland, was the “settling-in” period of the new website. This, of course, is balderdash, or at least peripheral [...]
Marks & Spencer poaches John Lewis finance chief Helen Weir November 17, 2014 MARKS & Spencer has poached Helen Weir from John Lewis to become its news finance director. Weir will succeed Alan Stewart, who quit M&S in July to join Tesco, and was fast-tracked into the job in September, when Tesco discovered a black hole in its accounts. Weir has been CFO at John Lewis since 2012 [...]
The best places to find Cyber Monday deals 2014: John Lewis, Tesco, Asos, Marks and Spencer, Game, Samsung, Halfords and Morrisons December 1, 2014 Beleaguered shoppers are still nursing their bruises and retailers are still fixing up their stores following UK's biggest-ever "Black Friday", yet the deals keep on coming. Tomorrow is "Cyber Monday", the internet's biggest shopping day of the year when online retailers offer consumers another chance to grab a bargain as the Christmas shopping season [...]
M&S poaches John Lewis finance director Helen Weir November 17, 2014 Marks & Spencer has appointed John Lewis finance director Helen Weir as its own chief financial officer. In a statement posted this afternoon, the retailer said Weir has yet to confirm a start date. M&S' previous finance director, Alan Stewart, left suddenly in September to take up his new role at Tesco several months earlier [...]