City Moves for 25 October 2016 | Who’s switching jobs October 25, 2016 Travelodge Hotel chain Travelodge has appointed Hannah Thomson to the position of people director. She will take up her new role from 1 November. Hannah will report directly to the chief executive Peter Gowers and joins the Travelodge operating board. Hannah began her career with the John Lewis Partnership businesses, John Lewis and Waitrose, where she held a range of roles in [...]
British Business Bank steps up funding to small businesses with £30m committed to asset-backed lending December 4, 2017 British Business Investments (BBI), the commercial arm of the state-owned British Business Bank (BBB), has committed £30m to asset-backed lending in an effort to shore up small business funding as Brexit approaches. The new funding will be provided through Independent Growth Finance (IGF), a firm which makes loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) secured [...]
The Battle for Virality: How the advertising industry stole Christmas November 14, 2016 Consumer capitalism is like an annual balloon, pumping in steady increments throughout the year. It grows and grows, stretching and straining around November, taut before the Black Friday Pin; the pressure too much, one prick and the balloon explodes in a relentless cloud of Christmas advertising. But where has this volley come from? We can’t even [...]
Labour MP leaves parliament for Sellafield, setting up by-election December 21, 2016 A Labour MP and critic Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership has gone for the nuclear option and announced he is to stand down from parliament, setting up a by-election. Jamie Reed is to quit as MP for Copeland in Cumbria at the end of January, moving on to become head of development and community relations at the [...]
Tesco fraud trial: Former chairman Sir Richard Broadbent gives evidence November 9, 2017 Former Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent told a court yesterday of the pressure facing Tesco in 2014 which caused him to replace the company’s chief executive. As early as 2013, Broadbent told the jury, “you could tell results were beginning to show a downward trend”. He said he had taken the decision to find a [...]
Solid John Lewis Christmas trading not enough to nudge profit expectations up January 6, 2016 The John Lewis Partnership has reported a solid Christmas period, with sales across the group up 4.1 per cent for the six weeks to 2 January to £1.81bn – but it's not enough to shift the group's full year decline in profits. The figures The department store business was the strongest driver of growth, with sales up [...]
Consumer spending cooled in December after post-Brexit spending spree January 10, 2017 Consumer spending cooled towards the end of 2016, pointing to a slowdown in Britain's spending spree following the Brexit vote. In October and November, consumer spending growth hit 5.5 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively, according to Barclaycard. But this figure fell to four per cent growth year-on-year in December. Read more: Aldi bags [...]
Everything you need to know about Black Friday 2016 November 1, 2016 Black Friday 2016 is almost upon us. Falling on 25 November, this year's mega-deals day is already expected to exceed last year's sales bonanza. Already the rumour mill has started up, with deal tip sites suggesting plenty of bargains will be on offer from electricals specialists from Currys to Carphone Warehouse, while the big players Amazon, John Lewis [...]
Black Friday 2016: Customers of this lender are spending £32,000 a minute November 25, 2016 Nationwide card holders are spending £32,000 a minute in the Black Friday sales. The building society said that between midnight and 8:30am today customers had shelled out £16.3m, an increase on last year's spend. Read more: The best Black Friday deals on consoles and games More than 400,000 transactions have taken place – up 50 per cent [...]
Top business leaders are getting to work on making British industry digital to boost productivity and jobs February 1, 2017 It's full speed ahead for Britain's digital economy as top business leaders embark on ambitious plans to pull industry into the modern age and position itself at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution. Increasing productivity and creating highly-skilled jobs will be the focus of the ambitious new plan to put digital technology, such as artificial [...]