CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 12, 2012 Amor Group The business technology solutions company has appointed Joe Harley as a strategic adviser. He retired from the Civil Service earlier this year, and was most recently the UK Government chief information officer, and also served as chief information officer at the Department of Work and Pensions. Harley will also sit on Amor’s board [...]
Leon banking on appetite of hungry savers July 8, 2012 HUNGRY investors in search of an investment in a falafel wrap may find solace in fast-food chain Leon’s new retail bond. Nicknamed the Leon bond, the three-year fixed-term corporate bond pays an annual coupon of between 10 to 15 per cent in £eon Pounds, depending on the amount invested, which can be redeemed at the [...]
Retail industry lays out £500m growth plans August 9, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT yesterday announced some £500m of investment in Britain’s consumer industries, as some of the sector’s largest players laid out expansion plans in the UK and overseas. Speaking at the British Business Embassy’s Retail, Food and Drink summit in London yesterday, Boots chairman Stefano Pessina said the pharmacist will expand its store estate in [...]
Thorntons treated to rise in quarterly sales July 11, 2012 THORNTONS reported a rise in fourth quarter sales yesterday as it cashed in on demand for all-things British with its “Best of British” range of London bus and Union Jack-themed chocolates. The confectionary retailer, which is cutting 180 stores to save costs, said total sales for the three months to the end of June were [...]
Jobs are the one good news story in an otherwise gloomy UK October 17, 2012 REMEMBER all those people predicting that unemployment would rocket because of austerity? How the private sector would never be able to compensate for the cuts in the public sector’s workforce? Fortunately, it turns out that the doom-mongers got it wrong. The economy is hardly in a good state, of course, and tragically far too many [...]
20 of the world’s largest donors December 20, 2012 1 BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION US The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was formed in 2000 through the merger of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, adopting their previous agendas of improving global health and education. With offices in the US, India, China and UK, the foundation has a global [...]
Why Osborne has targeted the wrong kind of spending cuts October 16, 2012 HERE is the truth about the cuts so far, courtesy of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The deficit is down by about a quarter from its peak over the past two years, though it has increased again since the start of the current fiscal year. Looking just at 2010-11 and 2011-12, two thirds of [...]
City Moves Who’s switching jobs August 27, 2012 British Retail Consortium The BRC has appointed Ian Cheshire as chairman, taking over the two-year post from Rob Templeman on 1 October. Cheshire has been chief executive of Kingfisher since January 2008 and an executive director since June 2000. He has also been a non-executive director of Whitbread since February 2011. He serves as a [...]
Firms prosper as insolvency rate declines August 19, 2012 BUSINESS insolvencies fell sharply in July compared with the same month of 2011, according to research out today from Experian, with almost every region and sector registering an improvement. A total of 1,776 firms failed in the month, down on the 1,962 that failed in July 2011 – a drop of almost 200 despite the [...]
Amazon makes London its base for digital R&D July 22, 2012 AMAZON will open an international development centre in London, its latest investment in the city’s growing technology scene, the company announced today. The web retail giant’s eight-floor Digital Media Development Centre in Glasshouse Yard, Barbican will house teams of engineers working on Amazon’s digital projects, including creating services for internet televisions and smartphones. The centre [...]