National living wage pushes tens of thousands of companies into financial distress October 11, 2016 Nearly 100,000 businesses have been pushed into financial distress due to the introduction of the national living wage six months ago. According to data from insolvency firm Begbies Traynor, 97,342 firms impacted by the introduction of the national living wage are now struggling financially, an increase of 23 per cent since the legislation came into [...]
Christmas gifts 2015: How late can you leave your shopping at Argos, M&S, Currys, John Lewis, Zara, Amazon, Harrods and more? December 23, 2015 Left your Christmas shopping until the last minute this year again? You’re not alone. Christmas Eve is when the real festive rush sets in, with manic shoppers dashing to get everything done before Father Christmas is due. Last year, payments processor Worldpay estimated it was the single busiest day of the year, processing 26m transactions [...]
Businesses can no longer opt out of the conservative-liberal left culture wars December 9, 2016 Culture wars are raging in Britain and America and businesses are stuck uncomfortably in the middle. Executives have just witnessed many of their customers vote to leave the EU and reject large-scale immigration. They have witnessed a victory for Donald Trump. But they are also hearing a loud liberal backlash against both – amid concern [...]
Christmas gifts 2015: Sales of BBQS, board games and prosecco gummy bears are on the up at John Lewis, but the halls will be decked in more muted colour themes December 16, 2015 One of our favourite tipples has proven popular in a more unusual format, with sales of prosecco flavoured gummy bears bouncing 106 per cent week-on-week at John Lewis, the retail giant said today. Meanwhile, post-Christmas lunch entertainment might be a low-tech affair, with sales of board games rolling in 183 per cent higher year-on-year. And December this year has [...]
Retail sales defy gloomy predictions ahead of a bumper Black Friday November 18, 2016 Retail sales have outperformed expectations ahead of the nation's biggest shopping spree – Black Friday. According to the Office for National Statistics, the volume of retail sales increased by 7.3 per cent in October compared to the same month in 2015 – the highest growth rate for fourteen years. The amount spent online grew by [...]
John Lewis tills ring with £100m of weekly sales in countdown to Christmas as Black Friday 2015 draws near November 20, 2015 John Lewis has posted a jump in sales to deliver its first £100m week of the festive season, the department store group revealed today. Sales in the week ending 14 November increased by 1.5 per cent on last year and by 15.8 per cent on the previous week, boosted by its Man on the Moon [...]
Christmas adverts 2015: How Germany’s Edeka Heimkommen advert has beaten John Lewis and Sainsbury’s to claim the festive crown (so far) December 8, 2015 Put your telescope away, send your cat to its bed and tear up your lottery ticket – the Christmas ads race has taken yet another unexpected turn with a new frontrunner pulling into pole position. And the intrepid hero at the helm of this two million share behemoth? A kindly old man. No, not that [...]
John Lewis’s “Man on the Moon” Christmas advert 2015 has smashed the 6m view mark on YouTube November 7, 2015 This year's John Lewis Christmas Advert has now had more than 6m views on YouTube. The “Man on The Moon” features a little girl looking through a telescope and spotting an old man living all alone on the moon, at which point she decides to send him his own telescope as a Christmas present, so [...]
Christmas adverts are great, but retailers including John Lewis, Asda and Lidl must live up to the hype November 4, 2015 You could feel the anticipation earlier this week as the first of the Christmas adverts landed. Asda and Lidl were among the first to showcase their festive offerings, while John Lewis announced its ad launch in advance, giving the nation several days to get excited before the big reveal, which happens at 8am this Friday. Watch: [...]
Labour donor Michael Foster has been suspended from the party for likening Corbyn backers to stormtroopers September 11, 2016 Labour has suspended one of its most prominent individual donors over an article which likened backers of Jeremy Corbyn to Nazi stormtroopers. Michael Foster made the comparison in the Mail on Sunday last month, after losing out in a legal challenge on Corbyn's eligibility for the party's leadership contest. And Foster revealed his suspension in [...]