Archive for October, 2008
Play the name game to treat a corporate identity crisis
Five years ago, with a turnover of £11m, Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris were beginning to taste commercial success with ChocExpress, their chocolates-by-post business. But the two co-founders had realised that a gap was opening up between their intention to position the chocolates as a luxurious indulgence and the image of a swift treat that their brand name conjured up among customers.
Contract snared via iPod data theft
Indian construction firm loses bid after rival steals tender documents using iPod
An iPod has been used to steal data in order to beat a rival bid for a lucrative construction contract in India.
According to the Times of India, a construction firm was suspicious at the close margin by which its bid was beaten at tender.
Westminster pledges £100m recovery package
Council announces range of measures to help recession-hit Londoners
Westminster City Council has announced a £100m recovery package to help Londoners survive the downturn.
Measures include loans to support struggling homeowners with mortgage debt, a recommended freeze on council tax, improved shopping areas and a council-run apprenticeship scheme.
Credit crunch spreads to medium-sized housebuilders
£254m-turnover David McLean is pushed under by £100m debts, joining £131m-turnover Taggart
The collapse of two £100m-plus turnover housebuilders this month shows that medium-sized companies are no longer safe, industry sources have warned.
The claim follows the demise this week of housebuilder and contractor David McLean which had a reported turnover of £254m and Northern Ireland group Taggart Holdings last week, which turned over €164m (£131m) in 2006.
Mortgage lending up in September
New approvals show first monthly rise in a year, but lending still nearly 50% down on last year
Mortgage approvals rose in September for the first time in a year, revealed the Bank of England this week.
The bank reported that 33,000 mortgages were approved last month, an increase of 1,000 from the record low in August when total mortgage debt fell for the first time since records began in 1993. Mortgage lending was valued at £2.2bn in September, after a fall of £691m in August.
BAT results beat forecasts
British American Tobacco grew faster than expected in the three months to September, showing the resilience of cigarette sales in the face of the global downturn.
The world’s second biggest cigarette maker said income from emerging markets meant revenues were more than a quarter higher than the same period last year at £3.2bn ($5.2bn), bringing basic earnings per share for the quarter up 10 per cent to 33.01p.
Lookers reports sharp reversal in vehicle demand
Lookers, the vehicle dealer, reported a sharp fall in sales in the third quarter and said that trade continued to be challenging in September.
The fall in the third quarter to October 29, which wasn’t revealed by Lookers, was in line with data released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which reported a 19 per cent drop in third-quarter sales, it said.
Metro benefits from new own-brand food line
Metro, Germany’s largest retail group, appears to be profiting from a new line of value-for-money own-brand foods in its hypermarkets as German consumers cut back on big spending in the face of mounting economic uncertainty.
Success in retaining consumers trading down from higher to lower priced foods helped Europe’s second-largest retailer make up for slowing sales of more expensive electrical goods – and maintain its 2008 sales and profit forecast.
Store openings give a lift to House of Fraser
New department stores helped boost sales at House of Fraser, providing welcome news for the retailer, which is wrestling with fallout from the Icelandic banking collapse.
John King, chief executive, and Don McCarthy, chairman, on Thursday showed off their store at the new Westfield shopping centre in west London and played down its ill-timing.
Bakkavör in red on smaller appetites
Weak sales, rising costs and higher interest charges pushed Bakkavör, the UK’s largest producer of fresh prepared food and ready meals, into the red in the third quarter, even before the loss on the sale of its interest in Greencore, its Irish rival.
Luminar profits fall 37%
Profits at Luminar, the UK’s biggest nightclub owner, fell by 37 per cent in the six months to August as cash-strapped students saved money by staying at home.
Interim pre-tax profits fell to £8.4m ($13.7m), down from £13.4m in the same period last year. The shares fell 19½p, or almost 11 per cent, to 160p.
Monster of consumption looms large
The £1.7bn ($2.8bn), 40-acre Westfield shopping centre, which opened in London’s Shepherds Bush on Thursday, is the latest wave in a flood of retail developments washing over Britain’s cities just as the economy tips into recession.
It joins Liverpool’s Paradise Street development (£920m, 42 acres), Leicester High Cross (£350m, 25 acres) and Bristol’s Cabot Circus (£500m, 36 acres), all of which opened recently.
Like-for-like sales ease at Alliance Boots
Sales at the UK retailer division of Alliance Boots are slowing but the group said the non-discretionary nature of health and beauty products would help it weather the economic downturn.
In a trading update for the six months to the end of September, Alliance Boots said its trading had been “relatively resilient” with sales 11.3 per cent higher at £8.1bn ($13.3bn), although like-for-like sales in the UK slowed to a 0.5 per cent rise from 3.6 per cent in the year to March.
Reckitt chief hits out at Tesco
A leading consumer-goods maker has lashed out at Tesco for forcing suppliers to wait almost two months to be paid, warning that some smaller operators could be forced out of business.
Bart Becht, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, told the Financial Times this week that the move by the biggest retailer this month to extend the time it would take to pay for goods from 30 to 60 days could be damaging.
Westfield draws in shoppers to defy gloom
London shoppers flocked to the opening of Europe’s largest inner-city shopping centre on Thursday as retailers’ fears of impending recession were banished for one day at least.
The Westfield London shopping centre in Shepherds Bush was launched on Thursday by Boris Johnson, the London mayor, with a lavish party thrown by the developer.
Temple to consumerism ignores recession fears
Europe’s largest inner-city shopping centre opened in London yesterday as fears over the impending recession appeared to be held at bay for one day at least.
The Westfield London shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush was opened by Boris Johnson, the mayor, at a party thrown by developer Westfield, one of Australia’s largest property companies.
The man behind Porsche’s winning trade
The architect of Porsche’s winning trade on Volkswagen shares isn’t an investment banker but a stubble-chinned manager from rural Rhineland-Palatinate whose previous biggest experience was to be finance director of a floor coverings company.
Holger Härter, the chief financial officer of Porsche, certainly has an atypical career for somebody who is now earning the German sports carmaker billions of euros from derivatives. But his role has inspired VW investors and analysts to simultaneous bouts of admiration and despair.