Stephen Hinchliffe is determined to turn himself into Harry High Street. Not content with buying the Sock Shop chain, the Salisbury bag shops and the Torq jewellery stores in the past few months, the Sheffield-born entrepreneur yesterday paid “se veral million pounds” for Red or Dead, the right-on fashion designer and retailer. Founded by Wayne Hemmingway, one of the presenters of the BBC’s Clothes Show, Red or Dead has sold something called the Watch Shoe to Bros, the former pop group. In 1989 it launched a designer collection called Space Baby, which proved a success.
Mr Hinchliffe, who acquires 14 shops as part of the deal, declines to comment on whether he will be purchasing some trendy threads from the stores.. The outburst from Eric Cantona places Nike, his sponsor, in an unenviable position.
The shoe company tried to boost its street cred by running a controversial advertisement featuring the Frenchman confessing to foul behaviour, including spitting and fighting, while shrugging ambiguously into the camera. The ad has now backfired alarmingly and the company risks the reflected animosity of a nation. In 1991 Pifco made a £3m claim against the auditors Price Waterhouse alleging negligence arising from the 1985 takeover of Salton, but received only £263,000 in an out-of-court settlement after paying £500,00 in legal fees.. He fell in love with a wonderful French hairdryer company, negotiated a marriage and last week, less than two days before the ceremony, she ran off with another suitor. “They were double-dealing and in this land I believe that is not regarded as ethical behavour,” the Manchester businessman complained.
Now, like a jilted lover suing for the cost of an engagement ring, he is trying to get back money for the hefty bill for advice from Warburg, Arthur Andersen and Slaughter & May.Shareholders should not raise their hopes for a lottery-style prize.
Poor old Michael Weber, the acquisitive chairman of Pifco. The company has five plants in Japan, including one in the Kobe area.Earnings per share for the quarter are $1.06, up from $0.92 for the same period last year.. Earnings continue to be positively influenced by worldwide cost control.”However, worldwide price competition held back the value of sales by 7 per cent.The company said it was not adversely affected by the financial crisis in Mexico. But it expects the earthquake in Kobe, Japan, to cost it $50m. After-tax earnings from P&G’s overseas operations grew 20 per cent.The chairman and chief executive, Edwin Artzt, said: “We continue to see sales growth in virtually all business sectors and geographic regions. Nevertheless, the company said strong price competition around the world held back turnover.
After-tax earnings for the first half rose 16.5 per cent to $1.5bn.
Turnover for the first half rose to $16.6bn, up 8 per cent from $15.3bn.Sales volume in the US grew 6 per cent, while earnings grew 7 per cent. The higher profits came from a combination of cost control and increases in volume. Procter and Gamble, the United States soap powder manufacturer and Unilever’s largest competitor, reported a 15 per cent increase in post-tax earnings in its second quarter to the end of December. Worcestershire-based Misys said its order book grew 47 per cent and its cash pile increased by £2m to £35m.
Kevin Lomax, chairman, said that in the six months to November 1994 software sales had continued to grow as a percentage of total sales, with a resulting beneficial effect on gross margins.In the financial services division, electronic transaction volumes tripled, with profits rising from £4.8m to £6.2m.Significant development projects had also been completed in sectors ranging from banks to libraries and insurance.Overall pre-tax profits advanced to £11.2m (£8m), with earnings per share increasing 16 per cent to 16.2p The dividend increases 15 per cent to 3.45p.. Analysts at brokers BZW have left their year-end forecasts of £291m unchanged..
Misys, the computer systems group which last month withdrew a bid approach for its rival RM after the latter decided to go ahead with a market float, has raised interim profits by 40 per cent. However, he was not prepared to intervene personally.After several questions, British shareholders complained that too much time was being devoted to the union issue and Sir Neil ruled that the meeting should move on.Commenting afterwards, Tate & Lyle’s finance director, Paul Lewis, said: “We would dearly love to end this dispute. It’s not in our interests or the union’s interests, but we are dealing with a minority of a minority here. It is only a fraction of the AEStaley workforce.”He said Decatur was a heavily unionised area where disputes involving other companies such as Caterpillar were also current. Since the dispute, the plant in Illinois had been operating at record levels and with a better safety record than ever.The disruption overshadowed a statement on Tate & Lyle’s current trading.
