The Good (and not so bad) News Thread

RenovationMan

Kent-based Bovis to expect a 68% rise in profits

Bovis, a UK housebuilding firm said it expects to make record profits worth £31m in 2011, which would account for a 68% rise at the firm.
In addition to this, the firm also said that house completions rose by 8% over the period, rising to 2,045 units. Forward sales have also jumped by an encouraging 35% as we enter 2012, standing at 568 homes.

RenovationMan

Bloomsbury report strong forth quarter sales

UK Publishing house Bloomsbury has reported strong forth quarter figures for 2011, which accounted a 38% rise in sales of e-books compared to the same quarter in 2010.
The firm also previously agreed a £2.1m deal for the Wisden cricket brand in India back in October.

RenovationMan

Phew! A lot of good news to catch up on since I last visited this thread. Just goes to show that while we have a way to go with the UK economy, its not all doom and gloom.

CRASH_BANG_WALLOP

Renoman give it up dude. 90% of the above has already been discussed man. you are looking tad desperate people will laugh at you. you're a good guy and i wouldnt want them doing that.

jobs in mcdonalds asda? come on dude get with it!

the biggest thing is a shrink of 0.2%, construction shrank, manufacturing shrank the ordinary dude on the street couldnt give a hoot if pc world sold a couple of extra laptops

RenovationMan

Services sector PMI goes way beyond expectation in January

This morning the PMI (Purchase Manager's Index) for the services sector was released and revealed a bounce back for the industry that no one had predicted. Any figure above 50.0 indicates growth in the sector and analysts had predicted a figure of 53.3. The actual figure came in at 56.0.

The figure for the services industry is seen as very important as the sector counts towards 70% of UK GDP, strengthening hopes of a decent growth figure in the first quarter of 2012.

The news comes just days after PMI figures for Manufacturing were released, which also showed a better than expected value of 52.1.

RenovationMan

BT profits rise by 48%

British Telecoms has announced that pre-tax profits at the firm rose by 48% in the three months to the end of December, hitting a total of £652m.
The firm has cited greater efficiencies within their operations and a boost of customers taking up their Broadband services, which rose by 95,000 over the period.

The firm is currently rolling out superfast Broadband across the UK.

RenovationMan

Manufacturing output grows to 8 month high in January

Manufacturing output in the UK grew to an 8 month high in January after the Markit/CIPs index showed stronger than expected results. PMI hit 52.1 last month, which shows growth as the figure is above 50.0.

The figures gave a sharp increase in output, a rise in new orders and particularly exports as well as a fall in costs for manufacturers. Firms also reported that consumers were more willing to spend money for goods over the period.

RenovationMan

ARM profits rise by 49% with 25 new contracts

UK chip designer ARM Holdings has reported pre-tax profits of £31.4m, a rise of 49% on the previous year. The firm, which designs chips that are used in the majority of smartphones including the iPhone signed 25 new licensing agreements over the year.

Shares in the FTSE constituent rose by 7% on the announcement.

RenovationMan

BSkyB report 27% rise in profits and 1,300 jobs

Shares in the British Sky Broadcasting Group jumped by 3.8% this morning after it emerged that pre-tax profits at the firm grew by 27% to £597m in the last six months of 2011 and the announcement that they are to create 1,300 jobs at the company over the next two years.

New subscriptions at the firm rose by 100,000 over the period, but the firm doesn't look to stop there and will be launching an on demand internet service later this year to drive growth.

RenovationMan

UK food exporters to receive help from Government to cut regulation and trade barriers

In the UK's largest exporting market, the Government have set out new plans in order to boost growth in the sector to 20% by 2020 and exploit markets such as China, Russia, Brazil and India.

The move will seek to cut bureacracy, red tape and will offer a ''one-stop shop'' for support and advice on exports. The market, which is currently worth about £16.1bn to the UK economy currently sells more to Belgium alone than to these other markets put together. The move is aimed to encourage producers to export more to these markets.