Sofa and living room furniture specialist DFS has reported a sharp drop in annual profits. DFS said uncertainty in the economy had led to a “significant deterioration in the consumer market”, and continued weakness of the pound against the dollar had also held back profits. Profits dropped 22.3% to £50m although revenues inched up to £762m. DFS…
UK building and services firm Carillion has seen its share price fall 18%. It reported a first-half loss of £1.15bn and said it had taken an impairment charge of £134m on its UK and Canadian construction businesses. It had also made provision of £200m for losses on its support services contracts. This is on top…
Google has struck a $1.1bn (£822m) deal with Taiwan’s HTC to expand its smartphone business. Google will not take a stake in HTC, but some 2000 HTC staff will join Google in Silicon Valley. HTC was once a major player in the smartphone market but has struggled to compete with the likes of Apple and…
Profits at the John Lewis Partnership have more than halved after it was hit by re-organisation costs and the impact of the weaker pound following the Brexit vote. It said profits in the six months to 29 July 2017 fell 53.3% to £26.6m. John Lewis said the fall in the pound had pushed up its…
Asda is to axe hundreds of jobs at its Leeds head office and a further site in the East Midlands as part of a major cost-cutting drive. About 300 jobs are to go at Asda House in Leeds and George House in Leicester with job descriptions to a further 800 roles changed. Figures for 2016,…
This week marks almost three months since the abolition of employment tribunal fees. For those who missed it, the ruling followed Unison’s arduous and multi-year appeal against the government’s decision to impose tribunal fees on employees issuing tribunal proceedings. Unison, having had their case rejected at every level, finally succeeded in the Supreme Court. The…
The owner of Carphone Warehouse and Dixons has warned that more expensive mobile phone handsets and lower EU roaming charges will hurt its profits. In an unscheduled statement, the company stated that the scrapping of EU roaming charges for people using mobile phones abroad and customers not upgrading their phones as frequently because handsets have…
Online retail giant Amazon is to open a new warehouse near Bristol in 2018 which it says will create 1,000 jobs adding to its 13 sites in the UK. Other new warehouses are set to open in Doncaster, Warrington and Tilbury this autumn. The firm’s UK workforce will total 24,000 by the end of 2017.…
The Co-operative Bank has said it lost about 25,000 current accounts during the first 6 months of the year following the uncertainty over its future. Furthermore, £400m of instant access savings cash was withdrawn in a period that saw the bank being put up for sale before a rescue deal was agreed. In June 2017…
Sales at High Street retailer Next have had a big boost after an 11.4% increase from their Directory catalogue and internet business. However, full-price sales at Next Retail fell 7.4%, and it said it remained “cautious” about its outlook, given the current consumer environment. Next shares topped the FTSE 100 in early trading, rising more…