tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33555197360991187192009-10-22T11:37:06.730+01:00Business Studies made Easy!bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.comBlogger462625tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-48820302226302579372008-11-04T18:33:00.001Z2008-11-04T18:35:51.543Z

A deal which will see the return of Sky’s basic channels-Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News- on Virgin Media television packages has been agreed between the broadcasters Virgin Media and BSkyB.According to The Guardian, the basic channels will include Sky1, Sky2, Sky3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts and Sky Real Lives. The broadcast on Virgin Media will start on the 13th of November. This

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-52198758149597133082008-11-01T11:19:00.005Z2008-11-04T11:58:34.239Z

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Or so it seems for the automobile industry. “Buy One Get One Free” offers, whose natural habitat is on the shelves of supermarkets, are beginning to appear in car dealerships. The automobile industry has seen a massive drop in demand for new cars; some say the lowest seen for the last 15 years.A Dodge Avenger SXT (pictured above) priced at £20,000, now

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-60443127741695124992008-10-27T13:30:00.004Z2008-10-28T16:52:34.940Z

Prices of crude oil dropped from a peak of $147 a barrel in July to below $60 a barrel today. This drop in oil prices has sparked off a price war between, you guessed it, UK’s top four supermarkets-Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. After trying to fill up cash strapped consumer’s shopping carts, they are now trying to fill up their cars. Prices of unleaded petrol fell to just under £1 per

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-17386903916224154222008-10-22T15:50:00.006+01:002008-10-28T16:53:37.776Z

Home Retail Group, the company that owns the DIY store Homebase and retailer Argos, reported a loss of £450 million in its half-year operating profit. The reason for this loss is attributed not only to consumers restricting their spending, but also the weakening of the Pound which means that it costs more to import products from other countries, add to that the increase in the cost of raw

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-23241338746389452182008-10-15T16:07:00.002+01:002008-10-28T16:53:59.208Z

Marks & Spencer announced today (15 Oct) its partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy to launch its new offering- M&S Energy. Customers can sign up in store and online through www.mandsenergy.com which goes live on the 27th of October. M&S plans to reward their customers by offering them M&S vouchers when they sign up, reduce their energy usage or opt for paperless billing. It is relying on

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-53469181049305522372008-10-14T21:01:00.004+01:002008-10-28T16:54:15.428Z

The UK Government announced on Monday (13 Oct) that it was going to lend £37bn to three of UK’s biggest banks with the aim of “unfreezing” the frozen credit market. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will receive the biggest cash injection worth £20bn. The Government will buy £5bn worth of preference shares and another £15bn worth of ordinary shares in RBS if they are not bought by ordinary

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-57531629394371103512008-10-10T19:02:00.007+01:002008-10-28T16:54:58.978Z

Sir Alan Sugar, more famous for his show “The Apprentice” than his electronics company Amstrad, today (10 Oct) bought a 4% (3.88% to be exact) stake in the high street retailer Woolworths for £1.8 million. There have been fears recently that Woolworths could become yet another victim of the credit crunch. It reported a half-yearly loss of £100 million and its share price dropped by about 80%.

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-17925723223650697692008-10-08T15:55:00.002+01:002008-10-08T15:58:51.760+01:00

Poundland, the single price retailer where everything costs £1, announced that its operating profit for the financial year ending March 2008 had risen by a staggering 122%. Its profits rose from £3.6 million to £8 million. This shows that consumers are abandoning traditional retailers and heading for discount stores to save money. However, the interesting thing is that Poundland claim that they

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-47972245917542061572008-10-06T15:21:00.009+01:002008-10-06T18:57:20.926+01:00

Pizza Hut, famous for its pizzas (no prizes for guessing), is launching a new healthier menu which is to include pastas. As a part of this revamp, 30 of its branches in the UK are to be re-branded to "Pasta Hut", for the time being atleast, to reiterate the point that it is going to sell pastas. This re-brand is expected to cost £100m and will last 6 years. Pizza Hut has over 700 franchises in

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-15976666831455623692008-10-03T12:09:00.001+01:002008-10-03T12:12:35.329+01:00

Britain's biggest clothing retailer, Marks & Spencer, announced yesterday (03 Oct) that like-for-like sales for stores including the new ones had fallen by 6%. Although this is'nt as much as John Lewis, who saw its sales drop by 8%, it is still bad. General merchandise, which includes homeware and clothing, saw a fall of 6.4% while food sales fell by 5.9%. This fall in sales is being attributed

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-39647323505178363632008-10-01T15:21:00.004+01:002008-10-01T20:39:52.467+01:00

The credit crunch has meant that eating out is beginning to become a costly affair for most families and so they prefer to stay at home. However, rather than cooking a meal, most are beginning to order take-outs. Domino’s Pizza’s chief executive Chris Moore said that it was benefiting from this trend as the sales for the last 13 weeks had increased by 17.8%.Supermarkets are doing their bit to

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-70832631396822923392008-09-30T17:30:00.006+01:002008-10-01T20:39:39.806+01:00

Supermarket giant Tesco today announced a 11% rise in its half-year pre-tax profits which rose to £1.44 billion from £1.29 billion last year with sales rising 13% to £25.6 billion. Like-for-like sales grew by about 7% which seems very good especially since consumers are cutting back on their spending and discount retailers like Aldi, Lidl, Netto, Iceland, Wilkinsons, etc. are attracting customers

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-83940511216812003562008-09-26T12:10:00.008+01:002008-10-28T16:55:55.814Z

HSBC announced today that it was going to sack 1,100 of its 335,00 employees employed worldwide. According to the BBC, half of these job losses will be from the investment banking section of HSBC whose headquarters is situated at Canary Wharf.Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley announced yesterday that it would sack 370 of its employees in a bid to cut down its costs. 300 of these will be from its

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-62523655501571548092008-09-19T09:21:00.008+01:002008-10-01T20:38:43.861+01:00

Lloyds TSB confirmed the speculations and rumours about the rescue deal of HBOS which is to be worth around £12.2 billion. This deal is still awaiting the approval of the majority of the shareholders and the Financial Services Authority to go ahead. Should this deal go ahead, it will create a bank which will be worth about £30 billion and will have about 28% of the mortgage and savings

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-87744709969449918752008-09-17T16:13:00.008+01:002008-10-01T20:38:21.688+01:00

The US Federal Reserve, which is America's central bank, threw a lifeline and saved one of the world's biggest insurance group, American International Group (AIG), from collapse by lending it $85 billion, which would have to be paid back over two years at a high interest rate. Just recently, the US Government took over the US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a deal which is reported

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-47521976569247263262008-09-12T19:20:00.002+01:002008-09-19T11:43:57.412+01:00

Richard Branson is under pressure. He is opposed to the proposed BA-AA deal. I don't think, he needs to worry.First of all, its a free world. To say that this (BA+AA+Iberia alliance) will create monopoly is exaggeration.Secondly, he needs to make Virgin Atlantic more competitive. Virgin is known for good customer services. There is always a market for good airlines. Come on Sir Richard, be

bs@Learning Academynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-40267121117617203342008-09-12T15:13:00.007+01:002008-10-01T20:37:55.523+01:00

Retailer Morrisons reported that its profits in the first half of the year rose by 19% to £295 million. Shoppers, who are faced with rising utility bills and higher mortgage repayments, are seeing a reduction in their spending power and are hence switching from more expensive products such as premium branded and organic products to more basic value for money products to reduce their shopping

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-65521148803687228712008-09-11T23:23:00.008+01:002008-11-11T18:46:09.986Z

"Your call is important to us but all our advisers are busy at the moment. Please call later on.."How many times have you experienced this? Many times, I am sure. Does this mean that there should always be a person ready (24x7) waiting for your call?No, what I mean is that the businesses do not take customer services seriously. There are businesses that are notorious for exceptionally long delays

bs@Learning Academynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-82825266917892125552008-09-09T21:11:00.005+01:002008-10-01T20:36:48.584+01:00

According to the figures released by the British Retail Consortium, retail sales fell for the third consecutive month as the wet weather kept most of the shoppers indoors. Like-for-like sales for August were 1% lower than last year. DIY and gardening product sales fell due to the wet weather. However, furniture and home ware product sales fell the most.On the other hand, the appalling weather

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-46308501694957165592008-09-06T15:11:00.003+01:002008-10-01T20:36:24.654+01:00

It was reported this week by the BBC that food prices have risen by 8.3% since January this year. This is based on the figures from a survey carried out by Verdict Research specifically for the BBC.A packet of ham, a pack of four croissants and a medium sized chicken were among the seven products whose individual prices had risen by more then 40%. Among the 13 categories into which all the

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3355519736099118719.post-20588731317795228992008-09-03T20:01:00.002+01:002008-10-01T20:35:50.046+01:00

For some time now, mobile phone networks and retailers have been offering free or subsidised handsets when you sign up for one of their plans usually for a period of 12 or 18 months. Its great for consumers since they get the latest handsets without having to pay the full price and the networks are happy since they are assured custom for the stipulated length of the contract, in other words, the

bizeasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10580555577211411628noreply@blogger.com0