Growing food and booze sales give festive cheer to Marston’s January 21, 2014 MARSTON’S yesterday became the latest pub chain to report strong trading over the Christmas and New Year period, with like-for-like sales up 4.1 per cent. Food sales grew by 5.6 per cent in the 15 weeks to 18 January, the firm said, while at its more drinks-led managed pubs’ sales were up three per cent. [...]
Melrose and IMI return £1.2bn to shareholders after selling assets January 21, 2014 IT WAS a good day for investors in Melrose Industries and IMI yesterday, after both FTSE 100-quoted engineering firms said separately that they would be returning cash to shareholders. IMI – which makes valves and other equipment for controlling liquids and gas flows – is returning £620m to shareholders after it completed the sale of [...]
Vodafone and Sky in deal talks January 20, 2014 VODAFONE and Sky are holding high-level discussions on how the two companies could collaborate in order to curb BT’s growing reach in the broadband sector. The two firms have discussed options including a deal on Sky’s sports and movies channels or collaborating on a broadband service, people aware of the discussions told City AM. However [...]
Saga tests water with customers for market float January 20, 2014 SAGA, the over-50s insurer, has appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch to help plot a share offering for its 2.7m customers as part of a mooted £3bn stock market float. The cruise ship specialist, which is led by boss Andrew Goodsell, will test the water with customers this week to gauge interest in the plan [...]
Ocado eyes locations for third warehouse January 19, 2014 ONLINE grocer Ocado is understood to be searching for a third giant warehouse to increase its capacity for grocery deliveries. Morrisons bought the rights to half of its capacity at its Dordon fulfilment centre as part of the £216m tie-up last year. Ocado has suggested since that as a result it may have to look [...]
Hays bullish after increase in UK hires January 19, 2014 Alistair Cox sees plenty of growth to come for British jobs, but skills shortages are a worry AFTER a torrid few years for the jobs market, the boss of the country’s biggest white-collar recruiter is feeling optimistic enough about the growing signs of recovery that he’s even planning to add some staff to his own [...]
Ashley takes option for stake in Debenhams January 16, 2014 SPORTS Direct has sold its stake in Debenhams just four days after acquiring it in favour of an option that could eventually see it owning an even greater share of the struggling department store group. The sportswear giant controlled by billionaire Mike Ashley said yesterday that it has sold its entire 4.6 per cent interest [...]
Experian picks chief exec as its new chairman January 16, 2014 EXPERIAN’S chief executive is stepping into the chairman’s role from July, the firm announced yesterday, eight months after hiring headhunters to search for a new chair. The credit checking and data services group said Don Robert will leave the chief exec post to replace Sir John Peace, who said last May that he planned to [...]
Bovis boss hails strongest order book in years January 16, 2014 BOVIS Homes said its order book was at its strongest state in many years and that it was seeing robust demand for its homes in the early weeks of 2014, as buyers backed by the government helped boost the housing market. In a trading update yesterday, issued ahead of its full year results, the housebuilder [...]
BP forecasts shale boom will transform the energy market January 15, 2014 GLOBAL energy consumption will rise by 41 per cent by 2035, with 95 per cent of that growth in demand coming from emerging markets, research from oil major BP predicted yesterday. But energy use in developed markets is expected to grow very slowly and will begin to decline in the later years of the forecast [...]