Europe getting even hungrier for McDonald’s September 10, 2013 FAST food giant McDonald’s yesterday reported a bigger-than-expected 1.9 per cent increase in global sales at established restaurants in August, after a revival in France helped drive solid results in Europe, its top market. Although the results from the world’s biggest fast-food chain soundly beat the average estimate of a 0.3 per cent increase from [...]
Apple Pay launches: Why mobile payment is about take off October 21, 2014 Apple Pay, the tech giant's mobile payment service, has launched in the US offering users the ability to pay for items using just their mobile phone. It kicks of the most high-profile launch in the nascent mobile payment space, which could finally push it into the mainstream. A mobile wallet is perhaps the best way [...]
End to teaser rates at RBS March 17, 2014 RBS ATTACKED the credit card sector yesterday, calling zero-rate offers “debt traps” and promising to end the practice across its brands. It will no longer offer zero per cent purchase rates and balance transfers on its credit cards. “The credit cards industry is absolutely dominated by teaser rates, trapping people into a spiral of debt [...]
McDonald’s revenues miss expectations as European sales remain suppressed July 22, 2013 McDonald’s has reported second quarter revenues of $7.08bn, or $1.38 per share, missing analyst expectations of $1.41 per share (release). Year-on-year, second quarter revenues were up 2.4 per cent, and earnings per share rose by seven per cent. Net profits were up five per cent to $1.40bn. In the US, comparable sales were up one [...]
Meet Yuan Yafei: coming to a high street near you March 31, 2014 HOUSE OF Fraser is set to be snapped up by a former Chinese government employee who developed his £5bn conglomerate Sanpower from humble origins selling computers in the eastern city of Nanjing. Yuan Yafei, who Forbes estimates has a personal fortune of $485m (£291m), is currently the chairman of Sanpower, a Nanjing-based company that owns [...]
The Australian food revolution: Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver are joining a new wave of top antipodean chefs October 28, 2014 A grizzled miner in grubby, cement-splattered overalls clutches the stem of a wine glass with blackened fingertips, sipping chardonnay while recounting a recent dining experience at one of the city’s top tables. “It was the worst pizza I’ve ever tasted. The base was too limp and the feta too salty; it totally overpowered the [...]
Where to drink May 8, 2014 When daylight saving time kicks in and the sun emerges from behind the clouds, the British mind often wanders to warmer climes, and, more specifically, the things that people drink there. One such area is the “Dirty South” of America. The Q Grill opened in a former petrol station in Camden last week and is [...]
What you need to know before the US open May 8, 2014 US markets are expected to open higher today following Vladimir Putin’s more conciliatory stance towards the Ukrainian election, and better than expected initial jobless claims numbers. The number of people signing on for unemployment benefit for the first time fell by 26,000 last week, to 319,000. Over here in Europe, both the Bank of England [...]
ONS warns zero hours contracts figures mislead March 10, 2014 STATISTICS showing a dramatic increase in zero-hours contracts in the UK were claimed to be misleading by the government office that published them. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday urged caution on reading its report that 583,000 UK workers were on zero-hour contracts – more than double the original 250,000 estimate from last year [...]
Plain packaging is a losing strategy in the fight against smoking July 30, 2014 In the half-century since the landmark Surgeon General’s Report in the United States that first linked tobacco use to cancer, public-health advocates have made great strides in convincing people to kick the smoking habit–or never pick it up in the first place. The multimedia campaign against smoking continues to rack up successes today, but the [...]