Interestingly, while British people have always loved their Cadbury Crème Eggs, they appear to love them a little less now. Sales statistics are showing that there was a £6million slump last year since shoppers do not enjoy the recipe change that has occurred.
Cadbury changed their Crème Egg recipe last year by switching the Dairy Milk chocolate shell to a cheaper cocoa mix one. They also moved from a six pack to a five pack, while still charging the same price.
According to retail analysts IRI, the Bournville-based firm is paying the price, literally, for these changes. Overall sales of Cadbury-branded Easter eggs were down a whopping £10million, with the Crème Eggs leading the pack as the reason.
Cadbury saw their market shares drop from 42% to 40% in a year. Now, the Cadbury marketing manager Claire Low said to The Grocer, “The fundamentals of Cadbury Creme Egg remain exactly the same.”
Cadbury added, “Cadbury remains the number one treat at Easter. The Easter ‘season’ changes every year depending on when Easter falls. It was two weeks shorter in 2015 than 2014 so it’s hard to compare like for like.”
The British Bankers’ Association has reported that credit card spending volumes are up 14% annually. Official figures reveal that, on top of this, households are saving even less with savings dropping to the lowest point since 1963.
Figures from YouGov show that borrowing on credit cards has increased from £5,537 in November 2014 to £6,114 in November 2015.
Findings from Aviva indicate that most people don’t save money or budget ahead of time for Christmas, causing 25% of them to overspend or go into debt.
As the The BBA said: “Increased demand for personal loans continues to reflect better credit availability, low interest rates and stronger household finances.”
Read the whole article to learn more about these nerve-racking practices.
Who wouldn’t want to go and see Adele? Apparently the answer to that question is no one – since Adele tickets have gone crazy as of late. People are selling them for up to ten times their face value. Her new album “25” has become the fastest-selling UK album of all time and she is starting a 15 week concert tour in Britain, Ireland and Europe in February and March. Tickets cost between £35 and £95 and are limited to four tickets per person. People, however, are taking the tickets they have purchased and reselling them for far higher prices.
General ticket sales started on Friday, December 4th. On Adele’s website she states, “The resale of tickets will not be tolerated. We want to ensure that as many Adele.com members as possible have the opportunity to attend a performance, so any tickets suspected of being offered on resale marketplaces will be cancelled immediately.”
A spokesperson for Songkick, the company that is selling tickets to fans from Adele’s website said, “One of the great unsolved problems of live events is how to ensure tickets end up in the right hands. Over the last weeks, over 500,000 people registered at Adele.com in the hopes of securing tickets to her highly anticipated upcoming tour. Songkick provided the opportunity to allow fans to register, and to use its proprietary technology to identify touts, reduce their ability to purchase tickets when advance sales commenced on December 1 and to cancel as many tickets appearing on secondary ticketing sites as possible…This morning, Songkick sold 57,000 tickets to fans, with less than 2 per cent of these tickets making their way onto resale markets by mid afternoon. Compared to other events, we believe these efforts helped to reduce resale by well over 50 per cent, increasing the amount of fans that can attend these shows. Ultimately, artists’ goals of ensuring 100 per cent of tickets end up in the right hands will depend on a combination of both technology and legislative action.”
As terrorism around the world continues to rear its ugly head, there are several organizations reaching out to help. One of those organizations is the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews founded by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. The IFCJ uses its resources to help Jews in communities all over the world, especially those Jews that feel embattled or under threat from terrorism.
In the aftermath of the recent horrific terrorist attacks in Paris which left over 120 people dead and many more injured, it is not surprising that several Jewish families left France to make their way to Israel. Waiting at the airport to greet them and ease their transition were representatives of Rabbi Eckstein’s organization, the IFCJ.
After the attack in Paris, Rabbi Eckstein announced that his organization would help any French Jew seeking to find a haven in Israel, but he also vowed to help Jews in France who chose to stay. The IFCJ would help the French Jews expand and strengthen security in communal institutions.
“Alongside millions of Christian supporters of Israel, we stand with the beleaguered Jews of France, whether by helping bring those who want to start new lives in Israel, or better protecting the French-Jewish community and its institutions,” said Eckstein. “The fellowship is committed to protecting Jewish communities in need around the world and to helping those seeking to immigrate.”
The IFCJ has also helped Jews in the Ukraine. Since the beginning of the civil war, the IFCJ has helped over 1,600 Ukrainian Jews return to their homeland, and they hope to bring 400 additional Jews by the conclusion of 2015.
If you’ve always wanted your own specially knit clothing item – but you don’t sew – you’ll now be able to have it. Unmade, the high-tech knitwear brand with a store in London’s Covent Garden, now has the software for kitting your chosen garment with the click of a button.
They have recently secured backing from Net-a-Porter backer Carmen Busquets and their technology means that you can design your scarf or outfit on a computer and have it knitted within 48 hours.
The brand just opened on Floral Street and will soon be selling at department store Selfridges. Founded by Royal College of Arts students Ben Alun-Jones, Hall Watts and Kirsty Emery, Unmade is certainly making it so far.
As Ben Alun-Jones told WWD, “What we’re trying to do is a new approach to made-to-order. If you don’t want to wait three to six months for something to be made, your local production becomes not only desirable but also more economical as well. So we’re making everything in London, at Somerset House, which is more affordable. We’re also shifting the focus from ‘Buy this now’ to having us involve you in the process and make it more personal. And because everything is made to order, we use the best materials because we’re not making in bulk. And we know if it breaks, it’ll cost us more. So we use the best quality so as not to create unnecessary cost.”
Black Friday will soon be here, and sales are forecast to top £1billion in the UK that day. Some have been warning, however, that Black Friday doesn’t make the impact on businesses that some assume.
Marks & Spencer’s Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, executive director for marketing, said “It’s too early to call this year – the UK retail market is clearly in a better place in terms of consumer mindset. But I do not believe those big spikes dramatically inflate the outcome of the season. You just have a reshaping of spending.”
While retailers have to fight for a piece of the pie on that one day, they also have to deal with shipping issues. The massive quantity of goods ordered online on that one day have to be delivered in a timely fashion.
Danny Bagge, UK head of retail for IBM, said that the hidden costs of Black Friday and Boxing Day shouldn’t be ignored. As he said, “They are coping with volumes that are 600 per cent higher than on an average day. You can cope with the online aspect of that by throwing in hardware and testing your systems. But in the warehouse that means six times more staff, forklift truck handlers and delivery van drivers. You just can’t do that in a day. The key question is not whether Black Friday increases revenue. It is whether Black Friday is going to increase profit – and I think the jury is out on that. Operationally the cost of meeting it is just too extreme. Not just the cost of fulfilment, but then the cost of all the returns.”
Time will tell if Black Friday is really a benefit to retailers or an added burden.
There might be hope at the end of the financial rainbow. When the kids leave the house, it actually does help with the bottom line. Families save an average of £257 a month with each kid that leaves the house. Those in London actually save £676 a month typically for food, fuel and utility bills.
These statistics come from a survey of 1000 parents by the insurance firm RIAS. RIAS found, however, that many parents still foot the bill for their kids, thus missing out on this savings.
As RIAS managing director Peter Corfield said, “When children leave home for the first time, especially for university, it can be an emotional and difficult time for parents as they watch them head off to start a new chapter of their life. However, it’s interesting to see that for some parents this can give them a new lease of life. The extra disposable income allows them to enjoy more luxuries such as holidays, and dining out more.”
He added, “There is also a very practical side as well, with an ageing population some parents are also ploughing these savings back into planning for the future and enjoying their retirement more.”
Interestingly, though demand at the Marks & Spencer’s in the UK have been less than appealing, the demand in France has skyrocketed. The retail stores in France, which are all based in Paris, grew 39% to £71 million in the year to March. The company relaunched in France four years ago after they closed their 18 stores a decade earlier in France. They are now aiming to open more food stores in the next two years in France, bringing their total French presence to 25 stores.
In April of last year, they had a total of 455 stores. Their chief executive Marc Bolland said he wants to add 250 stores internationally over the next three years.
If you’re preparing to fly the friendly skies, you might want to do it with Ryanair. This low-cost airline had a 25% hike in profits recently and passenger numbers up 16%. Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary promised that the airline would use the first half performance “to pass on very aggressive pricing so that we fill 15 per cent capacity growth in the second half instead of 10 per cent.”
They have been working hard to change their image which has, up until now, included having sneaky fees. Their profits rose to €245million for the first three months of 2015, up from €197million a year earlier. The airline said that it expects its profits for the year to March 2016 to be at the upper end of their predicted €940million – €970million issued in May. They also predict that their annual passenger figures will move from the predicted 100million to 103million.
Michael O’Leary said, “We are pleased to report strong growth and profits in Q1. Our mix of low fares, best on time performance and enhanced customer experience under our new “Always Getting Better” programme, continues to attract millions of new customers.”
Enterprise Nation, which has a 70,000 person membership, has announced that it plans now to launch a new Northern growth hub. This hub hopes to offer incubation, co-working, mentoring and networking from September.
They hope to model the new hub on their incubator in Barnsley. It’s also introducing a network of 150 advocates and partners which will include 12 regional champions.
Founder Emma Jones says that Enterprise Nation will collaborate with insurance specialist Simply Business to open more pop-ups on local high streets. They will have an initial five in Horsham, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Wandsworth, South-West London in August and September.
As Jones said, “It’s important to extend support for early-stage entrepreneurship across the UK.”
