Direct Mail has been in the news recently with one or two major players that have been competing for the quickest and best methods of getting mail directly to your final goal as quick as possible. Now the main players in the industry like Royal mail and UPS are trying to dominate the whole industry but there are thousands of firms that do Direct Mail and they seem to be offering a lot better deals than the major players like cheaper costs or faster delivery times with a money back guarantee if they don’t get it there in the allocated time. I will always use these sort of companies if I need something delivering and its a absolute cert that I need it there, for instance by the next day before 12. Why would anyone use a company like Royal mail if there cant offer the same guarantees and charge more for it, so my recommendation would be look around if you need Direct Mail.
The regional final winners of the 2008 NE Business awards were announced recently at an awards ceremony at Hardwick Hall on April 30th. The NE Business awards are sponsored by the Newcastle Journal and the Evening Gazette. These awards are becoming more and more popular in the North East as businesses struggle to command a share of the market due to the current economic conditions. The awards celebrate North East innovation and creativity and are designed to improve the business prospects of the entrants by raising their profile. This is done by highlighting the success of the entrants and focusing on their achievements in the business world.
The winner of the overall prize for company of the year went to Tracerco from Billingham who provide diagnostic services and measurement solutions to process industry. A notable award for Internet and ICT went to Bean Bag Bazaar from Cramlington who stated as a small business selling bean bags to eventually having to upsize to a large warehouse outlet on Easter Park. The employer of the year went to Cummins from Darlington who manufacture engines.
These awards come as a welcome break from the current doom and gloom surrounding the business world and are sure to carry on their successful promotion of deserved business achievements in the future.
The UK customers’ love for eating at McDonalds has not waned despite cash crunch and gloomy economic conditions. McDonalds UK, posted strong growth in its first quarter sales, as lovers of chain’s fast food continued flocking to its restaurants in large numbers to have bites of Big Macs and newer ranges of food, even during recession.
According to McDonalds’ UK chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, the UK restaurants registered strong single digit growth in the first quarter ending March 31.
The fast food chain’s US parent reported global sales increase of 4.3% over the period, despite one day’s less trading in month of February this year. The first quarter profits of the company jumped by 4% to £979.5 million.
Operating income of the world’s largest chain of fast food restaurants rose 1% in constant currencies with France, the UK and Russia leading the way. Easterbrook claimed that growth in the UK sales was achieved during times when informal eating out market has remained static. He also added that the UK’s growth in sales as well as customer count was higher than Europe’s average, which confirmed that company was able to build market share as a result of investments it is making in the business.
In the first quarter, McDonalds UK added a 99p meat and bun combo, Mayo Chicken, chicken wraps and new burgers to its menu.
Retail sales declined for the 9th month in March, but were much better than expected by retailers as big discounting and sunny weather helped clothing and shoe retailers in posting higher sales.
According to sales monitor of the British Retail Consortium-KPMG, although like-for-like sales of retailers were down by 1.2% in March, it was an improvement on 1.8% fall posted in February. The year-on-year rise was 0.6%, which is better than 0.1% in February.
The industry experts are not reading too much into March data, since sales were boosted by the Easter shopping and also hit by snowy weather and cold in the same period.
According to Helen Dickinson, KPMG’s head of retail, 0.6% growth in total retail sales is not significant enough, but is better than expected.
March 2009 was the first month since May last, as clothing retailers posted sales increase, courtesy hefty discounting and warm weather. It was also the best month for footwear retailers, whose strong sales were driven by women’s shoes. However the floor-covering and furniture retailers posted 10% fall in sales, the biggest in last 9 years.
While like-for-like food sales grew by 4.7%, non-food sales tumbled by 4.3% in March. Internet, phones and mail order sales grew by 10.8%
Despite improvements in March, more retail failures are likely to take place in the coming months, believes Robin Knight at Zolfo Cooper.
Game Group, specialist in video games, registered record full-year profits, while Thorontons reported jump in third-quarter figures, giving boost to expectations that retail sector is now on the path to recovery.
Game Group, with 1,342 Gamestation and Game stores located in 10 countries, recorded 75% jump in pre-tax profits to £119.6 million during 53 weeks ending 31 January 2009. The impressive performance is credited to purchasing efficiencies of the Gamestation acquired last year.
Increase in Game’s total sales was 32.2% to £1.97 billion, as women, families and over-35s had been flocking in large numbers to purchase software games, including Grand Theft Auto IV and Wii-fit. According to the chief executive, Lisa Morgan, of Game Group, collapse of Woolworths and Zavvi, retailers in entertainment, also provided stimulus for growth.
However there was decline of 6.3% in Game’s underlying sales during last 11 weeks. Its gross margins showed improvement of 150 basis driven by software products of higher margins in the sales mix.
Chocolate retailer Thorntons’s own-store sales are also up by 9.3% to £35.3 million, with increase of 3.3% in like-for-like sales during last 14 weeks. Total sales, including multi-channel, franchise and commercial units, increased by 11.7% to £58.6 million and full-year pre-tax profits are expected to be around £5 million.
Applicants for mortgages are shocked to know that one in ten applications that fulfil all criteria for eligibility of loan is being rejected by lenders.
Nearly 9% of vetted mortgage applications have been rejected this year as compared to just 2.3% in 2007, even though all applications were meeting lender’s terms and conditions. Lenders found different reasons to reject them.
According to an agency spokesman, lenders have become too strict with mortgage criteria – even those applications where you would expect no hitch in acceptance are being flatly rejected.
Any blemishes in the credit history of an applicant can result in rejection. All debt repayments pertaining to store cards, credit cards, loans etc. have to be made on time. Details of defaults are held on borrower’s personal files for 6 years and count against him/her at the time of assessment of credit rating.
Assessing repayment capacity of borrower is the key for lenders. The most borrowers should expect is 4 times their salary, anything above this is not likely to be sanctioned.
According to a mortgage broker, lenders are too strict and getting a deal above 85% LTV is extremely difficult. Although they are advertising attractive rates on mortgages of 90% LTV, many borrowers fail to qualify despite good credit score.
Solid trading on the eve of Easter break buoyed retailers’ hopes that the worst days of their business downturn are over, but the industry experts have cautioned not to read too much into few days’ results.
Food sales surged ahead while fashion, DIY and department store chains reported relatively robust trading.
John Lewis’s sales of £48.4 million, at 27 department stores for the week ending Saturday 11th April, were down only by 1.5% over last year, helped by Good Friday. Director Knowles claimed that sales stack up was well when compared with high street as a whole.
According to him rise in fashion sales for the week was 6%, while children’s wear, particularly shoes, also registered strong performance. He remarked that parents were seen not cutting back on children’s items.
In central London, according to New West End Company, footfall was up by 10.5% on Monday, in comparison with same holiday period in March last year. The weekend sales was up 2% overall.
Easter is normally the biggest trading weekend and also a key indicator of coming months’ sales pattern for the DIY retailers. The B&Q spokesman informed that there was brisk sale of paint, decorative accessories and wall papers in the first half of weekend and as the weather grew warmer, sales of grow-your-own seeds and greenhouses increased substantially.
Asda’s spokesman also reported very strong business over Easter and added that stores were as busy on Good Friday as every year during Christmas.
Debenhams added optimism to the high street retailers by declaring sales growth for the first time in last 18 months. It joined group of retailers which have begun to defy recession. The department group’s shares also soared after it announced pre-tax profits ahead of City forecasts.
Debenhams’ deputy chief executive, Michael Sharp, stated that consumers have started spending once again on account of low mortgage costs and falling utility bills. He claimed that people were having more disposable income now than they had last year when interest rates and energy bills were at their peak.
Debenhams has been performing well as its sales in 154 stores across the UK grew by 6.1%, with 1.9% increase in like-for-like sales over 7 weeks to April 18. The sales were largely boosted by its Designer range and own-bought ranges including Maine New England.
During 26 weeks at the end of February, Debenhams’ headline pre-tax profits rose by 10.7% to £104.2 million, nearly £10 million above the market forecasts.
The star performers of the retailer were Jasper Conran and John Rocha, where overall sales rose by 11%. Michael Sharp termed this performance as pleasing particularly because trading conditions up to Christmas were most volatile ever seen before. But he is cautious about remaining period of current financial year and did not feel that consumer downturn had reached its bottom.
Debenhams will be opening nine stores during next two years, leading to creation of 1,800 new jobs.
BAA is struggling to get higher offers for its second largest UK airport Gatwick. Three rival consortia are expected to make bids on Monday, but the offers ale likely to be far below the UK airport operator’s earlier expectations.
Analysts are saying that these bids could be anywhere between £1.4bn and £1.5bn, well below £1.8bn, initially expected by BAA, a subsidiary of Ferrovial, Spain.
The valuation of Gatwick airport has gone down due to deterioration in operating performance, as passenger traffic has fallen sharply in last 6 months.
The bidders are also forced to increase equity levels in their bids since raising bank debts has become quite difficult. Debt levels are required to be restricted in order to get better investment-grade ratings from agencies.
The potential buyers of Gatwick are discouraged by the embarrassing collapse of Chicago Midway airport’s privatisation deal in the US. One of the expected bidders for Gatwick admitted that it failed to get finance to complete the deal which it had won for Chicago Midway in September.
Three groups bidding for Gatwick, include Manchester Airport Group, comprising of Borealis, Canadian Infrastructure Fund and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund; Lysander Gatwick Investment and Global Infrastructure Partners.
Electrical parts supplier, Electrocomponents, has posted 5% fall in its annual sales and scrapped special dividend apprehending profits to touch lower end of expectations.
The oxford-based company which supplies electrical items including semiconductors, cables and tools to businesses, is fighting the global slowdown and proposes to axe 470 jobs as one of the measures to cut costs.
Electrocomponents is expecting to save £18 million in 2009-2010, through job redundancies and other initiatives.
For the year ending March 31, the company is expecting pre-tax profit of £85 to £88 million, which is far below profits of £96.4 million made last year. Group sales were down by 5%, with decline of 7% in the UK and 5% in its international business.
Last month, rival Premier Farnell suffered 36% fall in 4th quarter pre-tax profits and announced cutting of jobs and closure of sites in the UK.
Electrocomponents’ group chief executive, Ian Mason, claimed that its gross margins were stable, cash generation was robust and the group was able to reduce costs significantly.
Under the prevailing trading environment, company feels inappropriate to pay special dividend, however it remains committed to pay total dividend of 11p. Special dividend of 7.4p a share was announced in May 2008.
at great prices.