Booming sales of electric bikes in the run-up to Christmas have helped Halfords Group (HFD) stick to its full-year profit guidance. The car equipment and bicycle retailer said it sold 96% more electric bikes in the 14 weeks to January 3 than the same time last year, and that one in five bikes and scooters sold are electric. Chief executive Graham Stapleton said the rise in sales was powered by customers’ efforts to be more environmentally friendly, as electric bikes are a greener way to travel short distances than diesel cars or motorbikes. Stapleton said: ‘Customers are responding to what they’re seeing on climate. ‘There’s just no doubt that electric is now here – it’s no longer an emergent small trend. It’s becoming a very significant part of our business in both cars and bikes.’ Older customers who wanted to return to cycling were also boosting sales of electric bikes, Stapleton added.
Pearson (PSON) is fighting for its place on the FTSE 100 after a bleak warning about its prospects sent shares tumbling. More than £411million was wiped off the publisher’s market value yesterday as the company, once a titan of the business world which now sells text books, said profits for 2019 would total around £590million. This was at the lower end of its September guidance, of £590 million to £640million. Pearson added that profits in 2020 were likely to fall to between £500million and £580million. The rout has left Pearson, formerly owner of publishers Ladybird and Penguin, with a market value of just £4.4billion – right at the bottom of Britain’s blue-chip index.
Ryanair Holdings (RYA) boss Michael O’Leary has threatened to sue the Government over its £106million plan to bailout struggling airline Flybe Group (FLYB). Mr O’Leary said Ryanair, easyJet (EZJ) and other budget airlines could ‘step in’ to cover routes to regional destinations including Exeter and Southampton if Flybe goes bust. He said the Government’s multi-million pound plan to rescue the air carrier ‘breaches state aid and competition law’ before branding it a ‘nasty cover up’. Describing Flybe as a ‘subsidised billionaire boys club’ he urged Chancellor Sajid Javid to give Ryanair and other rival airlines the same tax holidays as them. The Government’s plan has been met with staunch opposition from other UK airlines, with British Airways submitting a formal complaint to the EU’s competition watchdog over what it calls a ‘blatant misuse of public funds’. BA’s owners International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) today wrote to the Government accusing it of a ‘lack of transparency’ and asking for further details on the deal. Whatever the outcome of IAG’s complaint to the EU Directorate-General for Competition, officials in Brussels could use the Flybe crisis to their advantage in post-Brexit trade talks, according to The Telegraph.
TheWorks.co.uk plc (WRKS) boss has stepped down after nearly nine years at the helm – just two months after a shock profit warning sent its shares tumbling. The retailer said chief executive Kevin Keaney has been replaced by chief financial officer Gavin Peck. Shares soared as investors welcomed the change at the top and the group’s Christmas update showed like-for-like sales growth of 1.5% over the crucial trading weeks. Interim results on Thursday showed underlying pre-tax losses at The Works more than doubling to £8million in the 26 weeks to October 27 from £4.4million a year earlier.
Shares in Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) have dropped over 20% after the group issued a profit warning. Blaming a ‘highly promotional’ retail market and less money coming through from shoppers via credit revenues, N Brown said it now expects its annual pre-tax profit to come in between £70million and £72million, against previous estimates of between £78million and £84.1million. Worse still, N Brown said it even expects profits for the year after to now come in at a similar level to this year. Steve Johnson, chief executive officer of N Brown, said: ‘This has been an encouraging period of peak trading for the business in a highly promotional market, as we delivered digital revenue growth across both womenswear and menswear with particularly strong digital growth from Simply Be and Ambrose Wilson as customers responded well to our ranges. ‘Financial services revenue was down, reflective of our strategic approach to the retail business and continued tightening of our lending criteria. ‘Our expectations remain that the retail market will continue to be challenging and promotional, but we are focused on our clear strategy of delivering profitable digital growth.’
A company that claimed to represent Qatar’s huge sovereign wealth fund may have been struck off at the time it allegedly duped a Nigerian oil firm, it has emerged. Seawave Invest, which calls itself an ‘independent consultancy firm’ specialising in Africa, received a consultancy fee from petroleum company Lekoil Ltd (DI) (LEK) in return for a $184million (£142million) loan agreement from the Qatari Investment Authority (QIA). But Lekoil said on Monday that the Bahamian-registered firm had deceived it after the QIA said no such loan exists. Now, the PA news agency reports that Seawave Invest might have had its business licence revoked before the deal was announced on January 2 this year.
Primark suffered a dip in same-store UK sales in the last quarter, its owner Associated British Foods (ABF) revealed in a trading update today. But, taking into account new store openings, Primark’s UK operations actually saw sales rise 4% in the 16 weeks to 4 January. With this is mind, Primark is poised to open 18 new shops in the current financial year, including its first outlet in Slovenia and a second store in Poland. The fashion retailer’s owner gave no actual figure for the fall in like-for-like UK sales dip, which is a measure of business recorded by the same number of stores a year ago. But, Primark said it saw ‘particularly good’ trading over November and December in the UK. On the back of this, the group said it ‘delivered a further increase in share of the total clothing, footwear and accessories market.’ Primark is one of the few retailers sticking to its bricks-and-mortar roots, and plans to continue expanding its store portfolio to give shoppers cheap and fast fashion.
Whitbread (WTB) has been hit by a fall in trade at its regional hotels. Total like-for-like sales at the leisure and hospitality firm fell by 1.3% in the 13 weeks to November 28, as it expects its losses in Germany to be around £10million next year. Another 20 hotels comprising 4,500 rooms across the UK, Ireland and Germany, are planning to open in the coming year, although Whitbread says that higher national living wage and utility costs will negatively impact its margins. The Beefeater and Brewers Fayre operator says that despite the ‘uncertain’ political and economic environment in the UK, it remains optimistic of its future performance. They write: ‘Whitbread’s strong balance sheet, efficiency programme, resilient business model and ongoing investment puts it in a strong relative position to benefit as the environment improves.
The popularity of online stories about presenters Ant and Dec and the royal family have boosted profits at the owner of celebrity news site Entertainment Daily. , which also owns satirical news site The Daily Mash, said its 2019 profits would be ahead of expectations after the number of those clicking on Entertainment Daily stories from Google searches grew by 127%. The Daily Mash’s audience levels also rose 15%.
Wood Group (John) (WG.) shares surged after it said 2019 profits would be well ahead of the previous year’s figures and that it is making solid progress paying down its debt pile. It now expects to bring in up to £658million, up from £531million, though this was below a company-compiled forecast of about £661million and revenue is expected to fall from the previous year. Investors warmly welcomed the news that it has trimmed net debt – which had been mounting since its £2.2billion takeover of smaller rival Amec Foster Wheeler in 2017 – down from £1.4billion at the end of June to £1.1billion.
Rank Group (RNK) was also on the up as it bet on profits being higher than expected in the year to the end of June. The Mecca Bingo-owner reckons it will make as much as £115million, up from an earlier estimate of £103million.
Kier Group (KIE) released a reassuringly mundane update that said trading was ticking along as normal and it is still progressing with plans to cut costs, dispose of its housebuilding business and working out what to do with another property division.
