Revolution Bars said it was hurt by the impact of hot weather and the World Cup as it swung to a £3.6m annual pre-tax loss. The result for the year to the end of June compares to a profit of £5.2m the year before for the group - which operates 76 bars under the Revolution and Revolución de Cuba brands.Chairman Keith Edelman said the hottest summer on record combined with England's World Cup run "detracted from the appeal of our bars, which have neither TVs nor significant outside areas".Shares opened 4% lower on the results.The group, which employs more than 3,000 people, reported a 3.2% fall in like-for-like sales for the second half of the year, followed by further deterioration in the three months since the end of June, with sales down 5%.Business during 2018 has also been disrupted by the "Beast from the East", estimated to have knocked £500,000 off takings in early March, as well as the failure of the company behind Revolution's main drinks supplier.Mr Edelman … [Read more...] about Revolution in the red after summer sales hangover
Summer
Dry summer results in worst Danish harvest since 1980s
A dry Danish corn filed photographed in July. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix The agricultural sector is set to record huge losses after grain harvests produced the lowest output since 1983. With only minimal amounts still to be registered, the total harvest of grain for 2018 will reach around 6.5 million tonnes, according to industry representative organisation Dakofo. The figure represents a ten million tonne or 35 percent reduction in comparison with 2017. “The primary explanation is the long period of drought from when the crops were planted in the spring to when they were harvested,” Dakofo director Asbjørn Børsting said. This summer’s weather is not the only contributory factor to the reduction in output relative to last year. Poor weather in the autumn of 2017, when there was a high amount of rainfall, is also partly to blame, according to Troels Toft, section director at Seges, a research centre for the agricultural sector. … [Read more...] about Dry summer results in worst Danish harvest since 1980s
Summer of algae: Despite decades of efforts, near record levels of fertilizer fouled Lake O last year
Hurricane Irma’s torrential rains flooded Lake Okeechobee with more than 450 metric tons of phosphorus in a single month, contributing to a fertilizer dump that nourished this summer’s harmful algae bloom and surpassed the state’s phosphorus goal 10 times over. Between May 2017 and this past April, 1,046 metric tons of phosphorus soured Lake Okeechobee, carried largely in runoff from farms, dairies, cattle ranches and communities north of Florida’s freshwater center. About 6 percent of the water and 7 percent of the phosphorus that went into the lake during the same time period came from areas south of Lake O, according to the South Florida Water Management District. RELATED: Palm Beach County beaches closed after people fall ill from red tide-like irritant Scientists predicted an algae bloom was possible after Irma’s September soaking drove lake levels up 3 feet in a month, but the extent of the phosphorus loading … [Read more...] about Summer of algae: Despite decades of efforts, near record levels of fertilizer fouled Lake O last year
Summer sun sees Mackie’s ice cream scoop record sales
0 Have your say Ice cream maker Mackie’s of Scotland has enjoyed a record-breaking summer, selling a total of 3,647,534 litres of ice cream over the quarter, enough to fill almost one and a half Olympic-sized swimming pools. Mackie’s saw year-on-year sales increase by 37 per cent in June, by 96 per cent in July, and by 27 per cent in August.The Aberdeenshire firm, run by siblings Kirstin McNutt, Mac Mackie and Karin Hayhow, also reported increased demand from its international markets, with clients in Taiwan and Korea requesting bigger orders. The ice cream is shipped in specialised 40-foot refrigerated containers, with almost 20,000 tubs leaving the Mackie’s farm most weeks.Commercial director Stuart Common said: “It’s great to report that we have just seen our most successful summer since we started producing ice cream back in 1986.“Despite the obvious ongoing challenges of exporting ice cream, like specialised … [Read more...] about Summer sun sees Mackie’s ice cream scoop record sales
ECB’s Coeure sees rates steady through summer 2019
BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Central Bank (ECB) expects interest rates to stay at their current level through the summer of next year and the scaling back of economic stimulus measures to be gradual, board member Benoit Coeure told Germany's Taggespiegel. The comments are in line with the bank's previous assertion that it is comfortable with market expectations for an interest rate rise in the final quarter of 2019. "We expect interest rates to stay at the current level at least through the summer of 2019. But we have already started to reduce our net asset purchases and anticipate them ending after the end of December," Coeure told the newspaper in an interview released on Sunday ahead of publication on Monday. With inflation picking up, the ECB has been curbing stimulus for months and plans to end its 2.6 trillion euro bond purchase scheme in December. Coeure said that ample monetary stimulus would still be needed to achieve the bank's euro zone inflation target of below, but … [Read more...] about ECB’s Coeure sees rates steady through summer 2019