One million retail jobs at risk from rising wages and tax costs, warns British Retail Consortium February 29, 2016 One million retail jobs could disappear in the next decade as high street shops across the country struggle to cope with drastic changes in shopping habits and rising costs. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned that government policies including the new national living wage, the apprenticeship levy and rising business rates will add as much as £14bn [...]
Record grocery deflation hurts sales at Tesco, Asda and Morrisons and Sainsbury’s May 6, 2015 All four of Britain’s major supermarkets saw sales fall over the last 12 weeks, while the discounters continued to slow, as grocery price deflation reached another record low, figures released yesterday show. Sainsbury’s was the strongest performer among the big four despite a 0.2 per cent fall in sales thanks to its increased focus on [...]
From faulty cars to dodgy cheese: The number of product recalls hits a record high March 14, 2016 The number of products recalled after businesses discovered a health risk or a product flaw has soared to a record high, research out today shows. Around 310 products ranging from cars to groceries were recalled in the 12 months to 31 October 2015 compared with 245 the previous year – a jump of 26 per [...]
From the best US barbecue restaurants to the Senior Bankers’ Regime: What got you reading this week March 11, 2016 1. US barbecue restaurants City A.M. readers are clearly experiencing wanderlust: our US roadtrip sampling 32 of the US' most mouth-watering barbecue restaurants stormed to the top of our rankings this week. Find out where was finger-lickin' good here. 2. Another supermarket sweep Asda and Morrisons' share of of the market fell further this week – while sales at [...]
Sainsbury’s to phase out Bogof and other multi-buy grocery deals from August February 11, 2016 Sainsbury's has become the latest supermarket to announce it is phasing out multi-buy deals in favour of lower everyday prices instead. The move, which will see the end of buy one get one free (bogof) and other such deals comes after Tesco announced similar plans last month, bring both chains closer in line with practices of the discounters Aldi and [...]
London startup Qubit lands $40m series C round from Goldman Sachs, Sapphire Ventures, Accel and Saleforce Ventures February 22, 2016 Goldman Sachs is among the investors to plough $40m (£28.4m) into London startup Qubit in the latest of several deals injecting venture capital cash into the UK. The data analytics startup founded in the capital in 2010 landed the cash from Goldman's merchant banking division along with Sapphire Ventures and previous investors Accel and Salesforce Ventures. It brings its [...]
A family affair: How Ben and Ollie Black built their childcare empire June 6, 2016 Two minutes with the Black brothers and Laurel and Hardy come up. “You know, ‘another fine mess you’ve got me into’,” says Oliver Black, describing how he initially conceived of working with his brother. “I spent Christmas trying to convince Ollie that I knew about buying a company,” says Ben Black. The pair bought failing childcare [...]
As UK enters deflation, Asda boss Andy Clarke calls 2015 supermarkets’ “most challenging year yet” May 19, 2015 On the day the UK was pushed into deflation for the first time since 1962 by a dive in food prices, Asda chief executive Andy Clarke has called 2015 the "most challenging year" of the recovery for supermarkets. Read more: Analysts say deflation will not be here to stay In the supermarket's first quarter results statement [...]
Waitrose is “well set up” to face arrival of Amazon, says outgoing boss Mark Price March 10, 2016 Waitrose's outgoing boss Lord Price played down the threat of Amazon's entry in the UK, insisting it was strong enough to fend off competition and would continue to be “one of the few” retailers to increase profitability this year. Price, who was made a peer last week ahead of his new role as trade minister [...]
The UK’s 10 most difficult interview questions from Accenture, Barclays, Google and Metro Bank February 10, 2016 Job interviews are stressful at the best of times: not only do you have to remember not to fidget in your seat or worry about your handshake being clammy, you also have to get those tricky questions right… City firms are notoriously tough on their victims (er, we mean interviewees) and some of the interview [...]