Although Arcadia, which operates Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, made a pretax profit of £133.1 million in the year to 27th August, the figure represents a 38 per cent decline. Sales were also down, by 22 per cent, to £297.4. Further, in the first 12 weeks of the current financial year, likes-for-likes are down 4.4 per cent, blamed on the unseasonably warm autumn. In an interview with the
BBC, owner Sir Philip Green confirmed that the company will close up to 260 stores within the next three years.
Devon-based Truprint has won its three-year legal case with HM Revenue & Customs on whether it should have been charged VAT on sales of photobooks. Truprint claimed that the tax was incorrectly applied as the items were classified as “photo albums” rather than zero-rated books. In a statement, Mark Peters, a director at Truprint’s accountancy firm Old Mill, said: “HMRC’s case was based on an argument that photo books were not books because they often had no content,
only pictures.” But a London VAT tribunal Judge Roger Berner dismissed the claims
and ordered HMRC to repay £545,800 to Harrier Truprint to cover the tax years 2006 to 2009.
Sales at electricals specialist Dixons Retail plc inched up 1 per cent in the 24 weeks to 15th October 2011, to £3.29 billion. However, group like-for-like sales were down 5 per cent. Dixons’ losses in the UK and Ireland reduced from £10.7 million in 2010 to £3.9 million this year, yet group underlying loss before tax widened from £6.9 million to £25.3 million.
The Mail interviews Tesco chief Philip Clarke on the supermarket’s opportunities for growth.
According to the Financial Times, Marks & Spencer’s head of clothing and homewares is in discussions to leave the retailer and join online fashion site Asos.com, potentially as managing director.
K3 Business Technology Group has acquired web design agency Shine Marketing. The businesses have worked closely together on a number of projects since 2009 and the acquisition cements Shine’s relationship as K3’s preferred eCommerce partner. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Premier Farnell has completed the refinancing of its banking debt through establishing a £200 million, five-year multicurrency revolving facility with a banking syndicate including Barclays, Bank of America, HSBC, RBS and Santander. It has also issued $235 million (£175 million) in private placement notes. The agreements provide Farnell with the medium-term funding security it needs to proceed with its planned strategy and gives it the opportunity to pay down some of its existing, and more expensive, debt.
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