Asda Edges Ahead Of Rivals In The Price War

Disparity in the UK is widening according to Asda chief executive, Andy Clarke. He reports that shoppers in south east England are far more willing to spend on food shopping than those in the Northeast and Northern Ireland.

Quarterly figures show that Asda is winning the price war with Morrisons and Tesco, edging past them with a 0.5% increase in like-for-like sales in the second quarter of 2014.

Mr. Clarke is quick to point out the disparities between the north and the south. “It feels very different in London than in Northern Ireland or the northeast. If you’re a family on a budget in those difficult regions, it still feels very challenging out there.”

Asda enjoyed a 0.14% increase in market share during the second quarter. The supermarket giant is the second largest in the UK, behind Tesco and just ahead of Sainsbury’s. It is the only supermarket of the big four in the UK which is currently gaining market shares and sales. In contrast, Asda’s parent company, Walmart have just disclosed details of a disappointing performance in the US with a reduced profit forecast for the year.

Walmart’s profits will likely take a further hit with the introduction of President Obama’s healthcare reforms. Chief Executive of the chain, Doug McMillon admitted that trading had been “challenging” in recent years. “We need to see stronger comp (comparable sales) in Walmart US and Sam’s Club, but both reported flat comp sales.

Britain is one of Walmart’s largest overseas markets. Despite the tough climate, Asda is performing better than it’s competitors including discounters such as Aldi and Lidl. Just as their advertising campaigns simply state, the company has moved away from promotional offers and loyalty cards in favour of “everyday low prices”. Asda’s chief executive said he was keen to abandon pricing gimmicks and concentrate on permanent low prices. He added “We’re pleased with our market share growth during the quarter.”

Asda also said that it’s clothing line, George, has been performing very well. Boosted by strong sales of school uniforms, it is now the second best selling range in the UK behind only Primark.

According to public figures listed at Companies House, Asda bosses received £800,000 less in salary and £600,000 less in bonuses from shares. The biggest hit by the cuts was the boss himself, Andy Clarke, who saw his salary including share payout reduced to £440,000.

National Grid To Pay Firms To Use Less Power

National Grid recently announced that it has signed deals with Tata Steel, Flexitricity and 429 other companies, agreeing to pay them to use less power at peak times.

The company, which runs Britain’s supply network said the agreement would give it the “tools it needs to balance the power of the grid”

Peak time is defined as between 16:00 and 20:00 on weekdays from November through to February.

Fears have been raised of power shortages due to unexpected plant shut-downs, as a result of these new agreements.

National Grid has so far contracted 319 mega watts of what it has dubbed “Demand Side Balancing Reserve” at 431 sites in the United Kingdom. As and when needed, plants will reduce their demand on the grid, or switch to their own generators. In return, they will receive compensation from the National Grid.

Last month, National Grid said it would be expediting emergency plan asking providers how much additional electricity they could supply in the event of a shortfall, following a recent string of unforeseen problems at various power plants.

A few months ago, National Grid stated that the emergency plan would not be needed this year. That prediction has since changed, following fires at E.On’s Ironbridge and SEE’s Ferrybridge power plants, and provisionary checks at EDF’s Heysham and Hartlepool nuclear plants, following a serious of problems.

The UK is facing a real reduction in the domestically produced power, due to an ageing population of power plants that are slowly shutting down, and the speed, or lack thereof, of new ones starting up.

Rising Power Bills Number One Concern For SMEs

A recent report has revealed that cost of electricity is now the biggest challenge facing small businesses today, overtaking securing finance and the burden of red tape.

Of 2000 companies surveyed, Citizens Advice found that 46% of small business owners expressed concern over the cost of electricity, in contrast, only 16% were more concerned about accessing finance.

Chief executive of Citizens Advice, Ms Guy said: “Regulators, firms and business groups need to pay far greater attention to the ways in which these markets meet the needs of small business.”

Small businesses lack the market power of their medium and large business counterparts to negotiate good deals. Greater focus needs to be placed on problems facing smaller companies in dealing with the giants of the power and telecom industries, the charity said.

Investigations into Britain’s leading Energy firms has been launched by the competition watchdog after a report from regulator, OfGem. Ms Guy added that, with pressures affecting homeowners as well as businesses, the investigation needed to consider whether the market was working for all consumers.

The confederation of British industry said the government needed to do more to help support small businesses, but also noted that SMEs and business at large needs to be more energy efficient.

A spokesperson for CBI stated “As the economy recovers, businesses still face significant challenges, with rising energy prices an increasing concern. Energy efficiency can help businesses to manage these costs and the Government must ensure that small businesses have the support they need.”

SME owners are often not aware that they have all the same rights as domestic energy users, should they find themselves in difficulty. Struggling SMEs should not be afraid of seeking advice and exploring all available options.

Secure Websites Prioritised By Google

In 2011 the search engine giant moved its own Gmail service to a secure HTTPS connection by default.

Three years later and Google has just announced that from now on it will give preferential treatment to other pages that use HTTPS. Google decided to use this as a ranking signal after seeing positive effects during a recent testing phase.

HTTPS encryption makes websites harder to hack by scrambling data between the website servers and the user’s device. You’ll likely have noticed a little padlock icon that appears on some websites, this signifies a secure connection. The system is already used by many websites, and following this announcement we are certain to see their numbers increase.

Encryption is essential and makes total sense for many applications such as shopping and email, but what impact will this change have on other websites? Some web masters are concerned that this will mean they are forced to spend additional time and money in order to compete.

Jason Hart from SafeNet said “Previously organisations have shied away from encryption due to fears of slowing website response times, but there are now high speed encryption technologies available that mean cost and speed need no longer be an issue. So there really is no excuse for any data to be transmitted or stored in plain text.”

“Every company wants to rank favourable on Google, so it’s in their best interests to ensure web pages are encrypted.”

Putting some minds at rest, Google has stated that (at least for now) HTTPS encryption will not play a crucial role in how websites are ranked. Google’s algorithm currently looks at more than 200 signals to rank websites, these are constantly reviewed and revised in the search engine’s quest for the perfect ranking system.

“For now it’s only a very lightweight signal – affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high quality content – while we give web masters time to switch to HTTPS” Google’s Zineb Ait Bahajji and Gary Illyes said in a Google blog post.

“But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone on the web safe.”

From a user perspective, more encryption is welcomed, thanks partly to the revelations of Edward Snowden and the growing rate of cyber crime in general.

Sanctioned Mindfulness In The Workplace

Attaining nirvana and exceeding in the world of business might not seem like they go hand in hand, but that is precisely the message your employer may be pushing.

Over the last twenty years we have seen a huge rise in the popularity of traditional eastern practices in the west. Meditation and yoga are now firmly part of the modern lexicon and inevitably businesses have been quick to capitalise on this burgeoning market. Initially, creating products to cater to adherents, and more recently applying it internally, as a way of boosting productivity amongst employees.

So, what is mindfulness? It is quite simply, the state of being ‘mindful’. Being fully aware of the moment, living in the moment, and accepting one’s feelings and emotions without judgement or resistance. Now, you may be thinking that sounds like some wishy-washy new age gobbledygook, but there are numerous studies showing the benefits of both meditation and yoga.

Meditation has been shown (even in small amounts) to improve focus, reduce anxiety, improve memory, promote creativity and feelings of compassion. These effects aren’t short lived either, persisting long after a meditation session. Yoga has similar advantages, also benefiting the immune system, improving quality of sleep and several other health benefits.

A whole host of companies have attempted to leverage these ancient practices. New Balance, Procter & Gamble, General Mills and Unilver have all encouraged employees to roll out the yoga mats and adopt the lotus position. Increasing numbers of business leaders are proponents of meditation and its numerous benefits, too.