Debenhams, which is Britain’s second largest department store after John Lewis, has today exceeded market expectations after reporting growth of 0.4% in the nine week period to the end of August on a like-for-like basis. The retailing giant said aggressive summer discounting and promotions had helped increase its market share. The company said growth came [...]
John Lewis Partnership, the renowned employee-owned department store, has revealed its staff will share a bonus pot of £151 million. The announcement came after the 146-year-old group said annual pre-tax profits grew 9.7% to £306.6 million. According to John Lewis chairman, Charlie Mayfield, the company’s 70,000 staff – or partners, as John Lewis refers to [...]
Telecoms company Vodafone has announced plans to cut a further 375 jobs as part of its £1 billion cost-cutting programme, undertaken last year by the company as a result of a sharp decline in revenues from its core UK market. The company, which is the world’s largest mobile phone operator, said the job losses would [...]
Supermarket giant Morrisons has beat its rivals by announcing strong Christmas trading results. The Bradford-based retailer said like-for-like sales in the six weeks to January 3 rose by 6.5%. Meanwhile, total sales grew 11.2% as the supermarket attracted a record number of customers and the strong festive performance resulted in Morrisons increasing its market share [...]
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money has announced it is to buy regional bank Church House Trust for £12.3 million and will invest £37.3 million into the business. Virgin Money, which was unsuccessful in acquiring crisis-torn Northern Rock two years ago, already offers savings, credit card and investment products to around 2.5 million customers. The purchase [...]
Supermarket giant Morrisons has announced that a record number of customers visited its stores in the three months to November. The UK’s fourth-largest supermarket said 10.8 million customers visited its stores during the period and the group said its sales “continued to grow well ahead of the market”. The group announced that like-for-like sales, excluding [...]
Telecoms company Vodafone is seeking to increase its £1 billion cost-cutting programme by a further £1 billion by 2012 as a result of a sharp decline in revenues from its core UK market. The company, which is the world’s largest mobile phone operator, is struggling amid the global economic downturn and has already announced hundreds [...]
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money has applied to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for a banking licence, which would enable the consumer credit arm of the Virgin Group to offer deposit accounts. The move comes at a time when consumers have lost confidence in existing High Street banks following the financial crisis and Sir Richard [...]
The world’s largest phone maker, Nokia, has today posted a loss for the July to September period sending its shares falling 4% as the market digested the news. The group said it made a net loss of €913 million (£838 million) for the period, compared with a profit of €1.1 billion in the same period [...]
Britain’s largest mutually-owned retailer, the Co-operative Group, has today posted a 17% increase in profits for the six months to 25 July of £228.8 million. The retailer, which is the UK’s fifth largest following its acquisition of Somerfield, said sales of its re-launched and extended ‘Simply Value’ range were up almost 80% on the year. [...]
Marks and Spencer (M&S) is no longer Britain’s most popular fashion retailer. Shoppers seeking bargains amid the economic downturn means Asda’s George and discount clothing retailer Primark are the nation’s first and second favourite clothes shops. The budget fashion chains are luring shoppers away from the more expensive retailers and this was highlighted last month [...]
Supermarket giant Tesco has today announced a 1.5% rise in pre-tax profits for the half year to the end of August and has bucked the trend by creating 6,500 jobs in the period. Tesco, which has a 30% share of the grocery market, said pre-tax profits were £1.42 billion – up 1.5% compared with the [...]
Supermarket giant Tesco has posted a 4.3% rise in quarterly sales and said it has made a “solid” start to its financial year. While the rise in sales was better than its 3.7% growth in the previous quarter, it was still lower than its major rivals. Sales growth for the three month period to the [...]
Supermarket giant Morrisons, which is the UK’s fourth largest, has announced better-than-expected sales figures. The group, which continues to gain market share from other supermarket giants such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s, said the first quarter of the year saw like-for-like sales grow 7.3%, as a result of heavy discounting. The group said it is attracting [...]
The global economic downturn has resulted in a slump in demand for big-ticket items, such as cars and this is still the case for US carmakers after Chrysler reported a 48% decline in April sales compared with April 2008. Sales at Ford were down nearly 32% while General Motors (GM) sales were down 34%. The [...]
Supermarket giant Tesco has announced a pre-tax profit of £3.13 billion – the highest ever full-year earnings reported by a UK retailer. The UK‘s largest supermarket, with a 30% share of the market, said the current year had started “solid” with like-for-like sales (stripping out petrol) in the past six weeks rose by 3.4%. The [...]
The fall in advertising revenue has resulted in the first drop in quarterly sales for the first time since its incorporating as a public listed company. The recession has had an impact on slower profits and sales, as users of the search engine are not clicking on ads as often. As a result, sales in [...]
The world’s leading mobile phone maker has announced that it will lay off 1,700 people worldwide in order to cuts costs as the economic downturn has resulted in a reduced demand for the mobile phones. The cut backs will be made across several sectors and departments as it will hot both the corporate development office [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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