Cars, bibs and Sports Direct...
5 things we learned yesterday
1 North East motor group Jennings saw a big rise in turnover as people continued buying new cars, but investment in buildings resulted in a dip in operating profits.
The company, which is registered in Washington but has outlets around the North East, reported a 12% rise in turnover to £209m while gross profit rose by the same margin to £19+.5m.
But operating profit fell 12% to £1.4m in a year that saw Jennings open a Harley-Davidson centre in Gateshead and also set up its own property team to look after new buildings and maintenance of current sites.
The group said the Brexit vote in June “did create some uncertainty”. But managing director Nas Khan, who was awarded an OBE earlier this month for services to charity and his contribution to the North East economy, described 2016 as “very satisfying”. 2 Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct has seized control of US retailers Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports in a $101m (£78m) debt deal.
The billionaire tycoon has acquired the chains by buying up the debts of their parent firm Eastern Outfitters, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.
The deal will see Mr Ashley take charge of around 50 retail stores in the US under the Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports fascias, which sell clothing, sportswear and camping equipment.
Sports Direct said the acquisition will provide it with a “footprint in US bricks-and-mortar retail and a 3 A new national centre for the written word has been hailed as the region’s best building, winning three trophies at the North East’s main property awards. More than 50 of the North East’s most impressive property schemes battled it out for top honours at the 2017 RICS Awards North East, where the centre, in South Shields and known as The Word, was named overall Project of the Year.
The annual awards, held at the Civic Centre in Newcastle, celebrate inspirational initiatives in the region’s land, property and construction sectors. 4 A Durham mother who grew frustrated at messy mealtimes with her baby daughter has seen her solution grab worldwide attention.
Dawn Elizabeth Howe created a long-sleeved weaning bib for little Emily to protect against spillages and stains – and within weeks of launching it for sale on MessyLittleThing.com she is already generating interest from as far away as Europe, South Africa and the US.
Mrs Howe set the feeding-friendly invention in motion after being inundated with requests from friends after they’d seen the weaning bib she had made for her daughter. 5 Retail sales have recorded their biggest fall for seven years in the three months to March as rising living costs ate into household spending.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said sales fell by 1.4% over the three-month period, while also sinking well below expectations to drop by 1.8% on the month to March. The drop is expected to trim 0.1 percentage points off UK economic growth in the first quarter of this year.