John Smedley Coping in the Recession

The family owned knitwear company, famed for its quality and price, are now celebrating their their 225th anniversary. The company makes around £15M a year on jumpers, cardigans and twinsets.

Andrew Caughey is John Smedley's Managing Director. He says that during the recession sales for the company have remained stable. The reason, according to him, is that in a downturn consumers are often willing to forego cheaper and lesser quality products for those which are more lasting.

Only a third of John Smedley's sales are in the UK, and it turns out that the Kingdom held strong for the business recently due to its weakening sterling which has attracted tourists to buy more.

Source: Working Lunch, BBC.

John Smedley Coping in the Recession

When Cheques Go Out

Already many major stores refuse to take cheques including Tesco, Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer, but sometime soon cheques may be finished altogether. The Payments Council Board has set a target date of October 2018 to end them.

The use of cheques is still seen as quite popular. So what are the reasons to end them?

There are a few reasons, one being that they are seen as old fashioned and its use is gradually reducing. 2002 saw 2.4 billion cheques being written. This was reduced to 1.4 billion in 2008 (Working Lunch). They are therefore foreseen to phase out themselves as time passes.

The main reason, though, is the cost of processing, handling and clearing cheques and also the extended time it takes to clear them, thus making them unwanted by banks.

So what will replace cheques if they go? The way technology is developing and picking up it seems it will be the most likely alternative.

Already the Internet is becoming a popular payment and banking method. By the time cheques end in 2018 new methods are predicted to emerge including mobile phone payments, which are already popular in many countries worldwide.

When Cheques Go Out

Cadburys and Kraft

The chocolate making company Cadbury have been approached by a number of companies for a possible takeover and have thereafter raised their forecast for sales and profitability.

Recently, Kraft, the American food giant, gave a hostile bid of £10bn which Cadbury have disagreed with. They say that Krafts existing offer considerably undervalues Cadbury.

Since the approach from Kraft, Cadburys share prices have rocketed up significantly.

Cadburys and Kraft

Change in Insurance Law

Every year, thousands of people who sign up to insurance policies fail to get protected because the companies say they haven't given the right information.

One report for instance states that a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer would not get cover for it from her insurance company because she didn't mention that she was once treated for depression. Another case mentions a man falling down some stairs but he wouldn't get paid out because of a back pain medication he never told them about.

This may all change. The Law Commission, the body which reforms the legal sector, has suggested to MPs and Peers that the law be altered. They ask that the obligations for consumers to tell all details to the company be changed as this can be too difficult, and they ask for a balance from both parties.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says that it supports the Law Commission in this and that the customers should know exactly what they must inform the companies of and know what their rights and obligations are.

Any laws that change will not be secluded to health insurance but all types, from car to home insurance as well as others.

View related information:
Insurance View for UK companies, brokers and news
Law and Legal for solicitors in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Change in Insurance Law

Text Loaning

A new method for acquiring emergency loans has emerged known as text loaning. These are loans which an individual can receive by just text messaging the companies that give them using a mobile phone.

One company known as Txt Loan offers this service. After a registration and approval procedure a customer can text the company any time of the day for a quick fix of up to £100.

The interest rate can be quite steep, from £10 interest on a £100 loan to be paid back in just a single week; a rate of 994% APR, although being paid back weekly it may never come to so much.

There is a concern over how this may affect peoples' debts, especially in times like Christmas and when most of Txt Loan's customers are in their 20's and 30's. However, Gert Koppel, Chief Executive of Txt Loan says it is value for money and that the rates are clear and easy to understand.

Txt Loan claim to be responsible and only give loans to persons who earn at least £400 a month. They say only around 10% of applicants are ever accepted on the deal and that most pay their loans back on time.

Some organisations, such as Credit Action, are still wary though that other companies might try something similar and irresponsibly target more vulnerable people such as students.

Source: Working Lunch, BBC.

Text Loaning

HMV

HMV, who also own Waterstones, are one of the only succeeding music street stores. Strangely enough the store actually loses money every year for the first 6 months. This year they saw a loss of around £25M in those months which is actually a lot less than usual (Working Lunch, BBC).

The businesses busy months are the later 6 which includes Christmas time and that is when they make their profits. This time around HMV is hoping to have augmented sales due to influence from the TV show X-Factor.

HMV

Beware of Fraudulent Shopping Websites

Counterfeit websites used to steal customers' cash and credit card details are still big business today. The Metropolitan Police have already closed down over 1,200 of these websites.

The sites could be lookalikes which are made to resemble genuine websites or may act as their own company selling branded products online. The problem is these products they sell are either fake or just non-existent.

Even with the polices effort to close down these websites the trend is still enormous. Charlie Abrahams at MarkMonitor says that at any one time there will be literally thousands of phony websites for any major brand. One problem lies in the fact that the perpetrators operate from almost any country in the world which makes it impossible to catch them.

Attempts are being made to stop these dodgy sites from the servers and search engines and to make virus checkers spot the threats and notify users before hand. However even these methods are not fool proof and as of yet the best solution to the problem is making Internet users more vigilant.

Among the advice given to Internet users is:

• Research any websites you might use to buy from
• Check contacts of email adverts
• Look for the yellow padlock symbol when buying
• Use a dedicated credit cart for quick cancellations if anything goes wrong
• Report any problems immediately to trading standards or police
• See if the site has a feedback option or land line to enquire if the site is safe
• Check bank statements regularly
• Be wary of suspicious looking sites

In the end the best thing is to use common sense and if something seems too good to be true then chances are it probably is.

Source: Working Lunch, BBC.

Beware of Fraudulent Shopping Websites

Accurist Watches Marketing

The famous british company that specialises in making wrist watches is strategising it's marketing to bump up its sales in these following months and years. A 2 year programme to invest more in their marketing programme includes a new TV campaign to run this year and next, and the costs for the reinvestments in marketing will be 5 times as much as they spent last year.

Accurist say they are known for their high quality and value for money products. They sell a diverse range of watches with some more expensive watches of up to around £1,500 pounds having precious metals and stones as well as cheaper priced watches of as little as £30 meant for the buyer who is happy with a watch having standard metals. Accurist are now incorporating the Versace brand in their selection as well to be aimed at a higher market which they never yet targeted.

The company expects to sell 600,000 pieces in the UK this year and with the promotions that are underway the figure is predicted to grow a further 10% next year.

Source: Working Lunch, BBC.

Accurist Watches Marketing

Chance of Price Cuts in Stores

People are still spending more in stores. The BRC records that sales were up almost 2% this November from last year. However this is still less than the 4% higher sales recorded in October.

Shop keepers were expecting better increases and say this heightens the chance of price cuts to attract more customers for their Christmas shopping.

Source: Working Lunch, BBC.

Chance of Price Cuts in Stores

Personal Details held by Companies

Do the people have the right to have their personal details that are held by companies removed from their databases? The simple answer is no. As long as there is a use or need for it the information may be kept by organisations and in many cases this may be for a very long period.

What an individual can do, however, is to make a Stop Processing Request. This is basically a request to the company to stop processing their data in particular ways. To do this though, the person must write to the company making clear their objections to the way their data is being used and then explaining how this pains or distresses them.

The only way the company may still decline their request is if a legal justified explanation for doing so is given in return.

So how can one know what information of theirs is held by a company? This may be done by writing to the Company Secretary and asking for a Subject Access Request. Under the Data Protection Act it is compulsory for them to tell you, however, some companies may impose a £10.00 fee for this.

Personal Details held by Companies

Onine Shopping at Christmas

As people are gearing up for Christmas this month online sales are hitting new records for companies. This November has already seen a 17% rise in internet sales from the previous year, much more than last Novembers 9.5% rise (BRC). It is expected that approximately £300M will be spent online this Christmas.

Evidence shows that an increasing number of people are finding it more comfortable to purchase items with just a few simple clicks rather than taking the time to walk the busy town centres. Trust in online security when shopping happens to be improving as well.

Yet, contrary to predictions once held, most people today still prefer high street shopping. Online retail only amounts to around 3.9% of all retail sales (ONS). Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) thinks this might be because of the social and leisure aspects of active shopping as well as being able to notice more variety of shops and items whcih online they wouldn't.

In spite of this, online shopping this Christmas is still looking good. Take Play.com, a leader in selling entertainment online. They've mentioned selling 1,000 orders a minute and up to 550,000 units in just one day, a definite boost up from the previous year.

Fewer overheads in e-commerce equals cheaper prices and this is another reason why more shoppers are buying online this winter. And with the continued simplicity and trust in internet transactions next years Christmas may see even better.

Online Shopping at Christmas