Below are the key morning press headlines, featuring the The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Disappointing factory data from across the world sent stock markets down yesterday. Figures showed that American manufacturing was at its weakest in a decade amid the trade war with China. Activity in factories in the United States contracted for a second consecutive month in September. In Britain the sector recorded its fifth consecutive month of falling output, the longest run since 2009. Activity in the eurozone contracted further, to its weakest since October 2012, and in Asia there also were declines.
Greggs (GRG) had another ‘very strong’ quarter of rising sales as more customers popped in its stores to grab breakfast on their way to work, but the rapid growth is easing back. The company, which has been making headlines with the success of its vegan sausage roll, did not mention the V word once in its latest trading update, but said it had added some new chicken sandwiches to its autumn menu. Greggs also said it has stockpiled ingredients ahead of possible Brexit disruption, which it expects will put pressure on labour and input costs in the coming months. ‘As expected, the rate of year-on-year sales growth moderated as we came up against stronger comparative sales from the previous year, but sales were still up strongly, driven predominantly by growth in customer numbers,’ Greggs said.
Ryanair Holdings (RYA) boss Michael O’Leary has enraged the travel industry by claiming the package holiday is “screwed” following the failure of Thomas Cook. And in a blistering attack on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Mr O’Leary also said the UK airlines regulator was partly to blame for the spectacular collapse of the 178-year-old travel company. He said that airlines facing financial difficulty should be forced to set aside cash that could be used to fund any repatriation effort further down the line. “How can you [the CAA] license Thomas Cook in April as fit to fly for another 12 months and then it goes bust in September?” Mr O’Leary said. The package holiday is “screwed, it’s over”, he said.
The plan to turn around Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) clothing and home business is 18 months behind schedule, its chief executive said yesterday. Steve Rowe said more needs to be done to put the long-suffering divisions back on track and that he was disappointed with progress so far. The assessment, at the firm’s capital markets day, pointed to slow changes in supply chains, which in the past have led to stock shortages. It has made progress in new and improved styles, helping to grow the number of customers by 425,000 in the past year, with the autumn collection modelled by Line Of Duty star Vicky McClure. ‘There is still too much slow-moving stock in our system and we’re hampered by an expensive, inefficient supply chain,’ investors were told.
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) shares took a beating during London trading on Tuesday, after negative commentary from two sets of analysts. Shares fell after negative commentary from Credit Suisse and Panmure Gordon. Hargreaves’ high prices drew negative commentary, as did its operating margins, with Credit Suisse initiating coverage of its shares with a “sell” rating, writing: “We find HL’s premium valuation difficult to support in the face of near-term revenue and earnings growth headwinds.” They said that further damage from the continued fallout around fallen star trader Neil Woodford could hurt Hargreaves’.
The chief executive of J Sainsbury’s Argos business, who had been tipped as a frontrunner to become the supermarket group’s next boss, has been recruited by WPP (WPP) . John Rogers, 51, will join the world’s largest advertising group as chief financial officer early next year, replacing Paul Richardson, 61, who is retiring from the company. Mr Rogers had been seen by some analysts as a likely successor to Mike Coupe, 59, chief executive of Sainsbury’s. He has held several senior roles at the group, including that of chief financial officer between 2010 and 2016. At Argos, he has overseen the transformation of more stores to a digital format, allowing customers to order via tablets instead of catalogues.
ASOS (ASC) is poised to reveal a boardroom shake-up tomorrow as it battles to rebuild confidence with investors. The online fashion house, which has issued a string of profit warnings in the past year, is set to appoint Ocado executive Luke Jensen as a non-executive director, according to Sky News. Adam Crozier, who took over as company chairman in April, has drafted in a raft of new board members to revive what has been a tough period of trading. In July, the company blamed operational issues arising from its overhaul of warehouses in the US and Europe for its third profit warning in eight months.
The British division of Ferguson (FERG) is being readied for flotation in London with a 6% jump in trading profits. Wolseley UK is being split from its United States-focused parent, which has been under pressure to acquire a better rating with investors that believe valuations have been depressed by the performance of the struggling British business. Operating profits in Wolseley UK were nearer £9 million after one-off items connected with its continuing restructuring and the £9 million cost of bringing the company’s domicile back from Switzerland to London.
Crimson Tide (TIDE) has signed a three-year deal with an unnamed retailer to use its mobile software. Its tech has been used by Interserve to log cleaning activities and Nestle has used it to record deliveries. The contracted revenue from the ‘significant’ new deal will be at least £1.4million over the three years and Crimson Tide’s platform will be used in almost 4,000 retail sites in the UK and Ireland.