Visa Europe records three billion contactless payments over the last 12 months May 10, 2016 Card company Visa has recorded three billion contactless transactions in Europe over the past year. In April alone, European consumers used their cards 360m times, clocking in at almost 140 transactions per second. Contactless now accounts for one in every five Visa card payments in Europe, up from one in 60 in 2013. In the [...]
Horse racing betting: Hunt Cup is a Breeze for Ivory while Glory Awaits June 14, 2016 Some love them; some hate them, but working out one of Royal Ascot’s fiendishly difficult handicap puzzles rewards punters like nothing else. The Royal Hunt Cup (Wednesday 5.00pm) is possibly the biggest lottery of them all, especially when the ground is soft and the effects of the draw unclear. Sir Michael Stoute and Ryan Moore team [...]
What Next for the UK’s struggling high street? May 5, 2016 Retailers are having a tough old time of it. After last week’s casualties (BHS and Austin Reed) it seems likely that others could follow, and yesterday’s update from one of the high street’s more reliable traders underscored just how jittery the market has become. As a rule, Next tends to downplay its confidence about any [...]
Marks & Spencer smartens up: Marc Bolland says turnaround plan is finally working as profit rises May 20, 2015 Marks & Spencer chief executive Marc Bolland was cautiously optimistic yesterday that the high street stalwart had turned a corner towards recovery, as the retailer posted its first profit rise in four years. The retailer, which has been battling to revive its clothing arm, reported a 6.1 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to [...]
Rivals set to win customers on back of BHS’ demise April 27, 2016 BHS has entered administration, confirming what I have previously written about in this column; its loyal customers have deserted it in recent years. Although BHS will continue to trade while a buyer is sought, the retailer has been in trouble for some time as it failed to modernise its offering. It has been losing market [...]
Health retailer The Hut hails landmark year as earnings soar following a rise in overseas expansion April 19, 2016 Online health and beauty retailer The Hut Group, whose company tagline is "Attention to retail", has posted a rise in underlying earnings of 33 per cent to £30m in 2015. International sales soared to £167m, up 46 per cent after growing its international business and now accounts for more than 50 per cent of the groups sales. The group, backed by ex-Marks [...]
London’s drinking hotspots outdid the rest of the UK in May June 16, 2016 Ahead of the annual summer drinking boom London's pubs and bars were buoyed in May, as sales at the capital's drinking holes outpaced the rest of the country. Like-for-like sales at pubs and bars in London were up 3.8 per cent, while the pub and restaurant sector as a whole grew by 0.9 per cent. "With a [...]
Marks & Spencer chief executive Marc Bolland pockets £600,000 bonus after retailer’s first profit rise in four years June 4, 2015 It's not just shareholders who will be pleased that Marks & Spencer finally returned to growth last year. Marc Bolland has pocketed a bonus worth nearly £600,000 for the high street retailer's green shoots, which reported its first rise in profits in four years last month. Bolland received a bonus worth £596,000 on [...]
FTSE pushed down by Greek debt fears and grocery losses – London Report June 17, 2015 BRITAIN’S top share index turned lower by mid-session yesterday as losses in grocers and caution before a Federal Reserve announcement later in the day weighed on the market. The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed 0.4 per cent lower at 6,680.55 points. The FTSE, which fell to its lowest since late January on Tuesday, has lost around [...]
M&S needed a roar from Rowe, but all it got was a whisper May 26, 2016 It was Steve Rowe's opportunity to deliver something big. Analysts had forecast it, and, most importantly of all, M&S' customers were expecting it. But the man from Croydon adopted the softly-softly approach that you might expect of a lifer rather than the more radical path that newcomers tend to take. There was no Dave Lewis-style [...]