BGN Entrepreneur

The supermarket chain–Tesco has outlined its plans to to revive its performance in the UK and scale back its aggressive supermarket openings under a new strategic blueprint made by chief executive–Philip Clarke.
However, such move was clouded by a bungled dividend announcement in Tesco’s full-year results and news of a fresh set-back for the retailer’s loss-making US business.

Sales at the retail bellwether–Marks and Spencer was hit by the failure to order enough women’s kitwear and sought-after shoes in the first quarter of 2012.
The supermarket chain just announced in a quarterly trading statement that it had been short of stock in several best-selling womenswear lines, adding that trading in Ireland and Greece had been influenced by economic woes.
The weaker than expected sales update make the shares of M&S drop by 2.9% in early morning trading in London on Tuesday.

Robust sales in the UK, France as well as China helped the British luxury brand–Burberry shrug off concerns over a slowdown in consumer spending and boost second-half revenues of the brand by 19%.
Partly due to the good sales growth in knitwear, watches, fragrances, and men’s tailoring and accessories, Bubbery’s sales in the three months to March 31st came in line with analysts’ expectations.

Volkswagen-Audi arm has bought Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati company for an undisclosed sum. The 20-member supervisory board of Europe’s largest carmaker agreed to a 12th Add brand in its portfolio. The purchase is completed, if regulatory approval is received is required.

Ducati has won 13 riders of the Superbike World Championship since 1988, and the deal means the Audi compete with BMW now shows Superbikes. However, one expert has made ​​the wisdom of the purchase in question. “I can not think of any specific reason for Audi to justify a business case for the purchase of Ducati,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive, said at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach. Ducati makes about 40,000 bikes a year across its range of Cruiser, Supermoto, adventure, naughty, and superbikes.

Japan’s exports rose in March to recover favored by an increase in shipments of cars such as the sector remains from last year’s natural disasters. Car exports by 33.6% over the previous year, with total exports increased by 5.9%, latest trade data showed.

Japanese automakers have also benefited from growing demand from major markets like the U.S. The sale of passenger cars and light trucks in the U.S. by 13% in March, with Toyota sales up 15% and Nissan wins 13%. Ryoji Musha Musha said research by the BBC that the “improvement of exports shows that the Japanese recovery and the world economy.”
growing imports

Imports from Japan increased by 10.5% in March, leading to a trade deficit of 82.6bn yen ($ 1 billion, £ 632m) during the month. The jump was largely be driven by a 21.8% increase in imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Japan has seen the importation of LNG and other fuels rise in recent months. Last year, shut down almost all its nuclear power plants in the course of radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station after the earthquake and tsunami.

As a result, the country’s electricity providers were more heavily on thermal power plants that use coal, oil and liquefied natural gas required for the operation. Analysts said that rising imports of fuel is expected Japan’s trade surplus figures in the coming months will have an impact. “Exports to the United States such as cars are unlikely to grow further, while the quantity of imports will remain high, driven by the acquisition of natural resources,” said Hideo Shimamine, chief economist at Daiichi Life Research Institute.

Despite the turbulence in Europe and signs that China’s economic growth is slowing, the world’s largest soft drinks company by revenues–Coca-Cola just reported strong first-quarter sales worldwide.
Net income at Coke rose by 8% to $2bn. Such results beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

It was revealed that the on-going decline in the revenues of newspaper advertising will push first-half profits at Daily Mail and General Trust below 2011’s levels.
According to the publisher of the Daily Mail and Metro newspapers, it is said that the outlook for the full year remained unchanged. However, DMGT’s share still droped by 3% in early trading in London.
Although the first half year ended on a more upbeat note with ad revenues up by 1% in March, underlying advertising revenues at Associated Newspapers in the first six months of the financial year dropped by 3%. The newspaper business recorded a drop of 7%, which was offset by a rise of 10% in its digital sales in the first half.