Wolseley, which is the world’s largest supplier of plumbing and heating equipment, today reported a 30% rise in third quarter operating profit. The company, which was badly hit by the housing market downturn, said strong revenue growth in the US helped to offset weaker trading in the UK. The plumbers’ merchant said profits for the [...]
Japanese carmakers have been hit as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in March. Figures today revealed Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, said production plunged 74.5% in April on an annual basis. Meanwhile Honda’s output fell 81% on an annual basis, while Nissan suffered a 48.7% fall as they were forced halt production as [...]
British retailing giant Marks & Spencer (M&S) has today reported a 13% rise in annual profits to £714.3 million. Meanwhile, international sales grew 6.1%, while sales in the online operation rose 31%. However, despite the positive figures, the 127-year-old retailer which sells clothes, food and homewares, said the coming year will be challenging due to [...]
Irish no-frills airline Ryanair has today reported a rise in annual profits despite higher jet fuel costs, which continue to rise due to the political unrest in the Middle East. The budget carrier said fuel costs grew by 37% during the 12-month period to the end of March. Meanwhile, passenger numbers were up 8% in [...]
British Airways (BA) and the Unite union have finally come to an agreement to end their bitter dispute – which has been ongoing since November 2009. The agreement means the threat of strike action has been lifted. Cabin crew were involved in a bitter dispute with the airline for more than 18 months over cost-cutting [...]
Comet owner Kesa Electricals has announced plans to shut almost a dozen stores and axe 150 staff after sales fell amid the challenging economic environment. Kesa said same-store sales at Comet dived by 15.2% in the 12 weeks to 30 April as the High Street continues to suffer as consumers rein in their spending amid [...]
The long-running dispute between the Unite union and British Airways (BA) could come to an end following talks to avert further industrial action. Union members are understood to be meeting later today which could lead to an offer. Cabin crew have been involved in a bitter dispute with the airline since November 2009 over cost-cutting [...]
Budget airline easyJet has today revealed pre-tax losses for the six months to 31 March swelled to £153 million, compared with a loss of £79 million in the same period a year earlier. The no-frills airline attributed the loss to rising fuel costs and the challenging economic environment. Jet fuel costs continue to rise due [...]
Persimmon, which is the UK’s largest housebuilder by market value, has today reported a 12% rise in sales reservations in the first three months compared with a year ago. Furthermore, the housebuilder said its order book had risen to £1.14 billion – up from the £565 million at the start of the year. The figures [...]
It has been confirmed that Yorkshire Building Society will merger with smaller rival Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) Building Society. The announcement comes after much consolidation in Britain’s mutual sector, as a result of funding pressures. Meanwhile, the news comes after N&P, which is Britain’s tenth largest society, was fined earlier this week by the Financial [...]
Home Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, has today reported a 9.5% fall in pre-tax profits as conditions on the High Street remain challenging. Profits fell to £265.2 million in the 12 months to 26 February compared with £293 million in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, revenue was almost 3% lower on [...]
Supermarket giant Tesco has today announced overall pre-tax profits were £3.5 billion for the year to 26 February – an 11.3% rise on a year ago. Profits were 30% higher in Asia at £570 million with sales up 21% to £11 billion, driven by a strong performance in Thailand and Korea. Today’s results represent the [...]
Department store Debenhams appears to have bucked the trend on the High Street after reporting a rise in half-year profits. The retailer, which has 167 stores in the UK and Ireland, said pre-tax profits for the six month period to 26 February totalled £125.3 million – up from £114.5 million in the same period a [...]
Unilever has announced it is to close its final salary pension scheme citing “unsustainable” costs. The manufacturer of food and household products is the latest in a long line of companies to adopt these measures as a result of rising costs. Defined benefit [final salary] schemes have become significantly more expensive to operate and costs [...]
Airports operator BAA has today reported a marginal rise in passenger numbers at its six British airports in March. BAA, which is majority owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, said 8.27 million passengers flew from its UK airports during the month, compared with 8.19 million in the same month a year ago. Heathrow, which is the UK’s [...]
Retailers Halfords and Carpetright have both issued profit warnings, as UK consumers are squeezed in the face of rising inflation and Government spending cuts. Car parts and bicycle retailer Halfords lowered its 2011 estimate for profits before tax to £124 million-£127 million, down from £127 million announced earlier this year. The retailer blamed the “tougher [...]
British retailing giant Marks and Spencer (M&S) has today reported like-for-like sales, which strip out new store openings, grew 0.1% in the 13 week period to 2 April. The figures were marginally better than expected and sent shares up 13.3p today to 353.5p. The 127-year-old retailer which sells clothes, food and homewares said general merchandise [...]
Music, books, DVD and games retailer, HMV, has issued its third profits warning in as many months. It expects full-year pre-tax profits to be around £30 million – lower than the £38 million it estimated a month ago. The 90-year old retailer, which also owns Waterstone’s bookshops, in January said it was struggling to meet [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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