JOHN LEWIS SMASHES RECORDS January 5, 2010 BELLWETHER retailer John Lewis posted a surge in sales over the Christmas period, including its best ever week’s trading, and forecast a slow recovery in consumer spending in 2010. “As the year progresses we expect to see a long slow recovery with the retailers who continue to focus on giving customers what they want prospering,” [...]
BA’s image recovers from threat of strike action January 5, 2010 JOHN Lewis yesterday announced strong Christmas sales – and certainly from the BrandIndex satisfaction scores, it seems that Waitrose customers were satisfied with their Christmas shopping. Graph One shows the scores of six leading supermarkets for the month of December. A PR DISASTER British Airways, meanwhile, had a disastrous December on the PR front. Strikes [...]
British Airways cabin crew vote for strike February 22, 2010 BRITISH Airways (BA) cabin crew have voted in favour of industrial action over pay and conditions. According to the Unite Union, which represents the 12,000 crew, 81 per cent of the 9,000 who returned ballots voted in favour of a strike. Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said: “With this overwhelming vote in the teeth [...]
De Beers secures backing of $1 billion rights issue from major shareholders February 11, 2010 DE BEERS yesterday won the backing of its shareholders, Anglo American, the Oppenheimer family and the Botswana government, to raise a $1bn (£637m) rights issue to refinance its debt. The Group is still in talks with its bankers over securing a $1.5bn credit facility from March and the money raised will be used to cut [...]
New-look Liberty in sales boost January 14, 2010 Sales at London department store Liberty rose almost 18 per cent across the last 12 months, with fragrances, menswear and scarves leading the push over Christmas. The figures helped the group’s revenue rise by 20 per cent. Liberty re-opened with a fanfare last year after a revamp. Takings from its website have tripled since the [...]
Goodyear turns down Usmanov January 10, 2010 Charles “Chip” Goodyear, the former chief executive of FTSE 100 mining group BHP Billiton, has turned down a return to the sector with Metalloinvest – the steel group founded by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. Goodyear is understood to have been approached before Christmas but rejected an offer.
Thorntons has poor Xmas January 14, 2010 Chocolatier Thorntons has admitted that trade at its stores in the run-up to Christmas was disappointing – but claimed a move away from discounting had blurred the picture. Like-for-like sales at Thorntons fell by 4.4 per cent in the 14 weeks to 9 January. The company also suffered a 18.1 per cent decline in sales [...]
BA turns to old staff to cover strike February 10, 2010 British Airways yesterday asked staff whose temporary contracts expired last year to cover expected upcoming strike action. Former staff have been offered six month contracts worth £1,000 a month with an additional £2.40 an hour flying allowance. The staff would have to undergo a week long refresher course that would begin on 22 February. BA’s [...]
BA reports ‘better than expected’ £50m loss February 5, 2010 BRITISH Airways has reported a £50m pre-tax loss for the third quarter as passenger numbers fell. The result for the three months to December 31 was better than the £151m forecast by analysts. The airline’s deficit for the first nine months of its financial year was £342m. BA boss Willie Walsh said the better-than-expected results [...]
McDonald’s names new COO January 11, 2010 Burger behemoth McDonald’s has promoted US president Don?Thompson to the global role of chief operating officer. Thompson, 42, succeeds Ralph Alvarez, who retired after Christmas due to ill health. CEO Jim Skinner said the appointment demonstrated the company’s “deep bench of talented executives”.