Retailers dominated the brand news once again this week, with more Christmas sales figures out.
The much-awaited statement from Marks & Spencer showed that the high-street giant was once again back on track, with sales of both clothing and food up over Christmas.
Overall sales were up by 8.9% for the period -- the best performance from M&S for several years. The news must have come as a relief for chairman and CEO Luc Vandevelde, as none of the press could resist bringing up his self-imposed two-year deadline for turning the company's fortunes around.
Joining M&S and Next as the fashion retailers with strong Christmas sales, Ted Baker also surfed the retail boom, releasing a statement saying that sales were up by 25% in the two months running up to Christmas.
Sainsbury's also published positive figures for Christmas trading, but the news was overshadowed by the revelation that the supermarket is to sign up celebrity chef Jamie Oliver for a further four-year contract to continue as the brand's spokesman.
Newspapers widely repeated a £2m figure for the contract. However, the Daily Mail hit back with a full-page piece on "Why I'd pay Jamie Oliver £5m to stay OFF our screens". Sainsbury's brushed off questions about Oliver's value to the brand after a couple of high-profile incidents in the last 12 months resulting in embarrasing press, saying that he feels the same way about food as the supermarket does.
Tesco, still beating Sainsbury's at the till, was widely reported to be taking e-commerce to the US, where its website technology is to be rolled out for US chain Safeway. As the Financial Times put it: "Home Counties know-how is driving the biggest e-commerce operation in California, the home of the internet".
Bad news for Ford Motors, which reported a loss of £3.8bn for the year. Locally, it was also counting the cost of a knockdown sale of its Kwik-Fit operation. Speculation has it that the man who sold the company to Ford, Sir Tom Farmer, may buy it back at roughly half the £1bn he got for it in 1999.
In our new, post-September 11 world, where airline safety is paramount, bmi British Midland announced that its new, budget airline would be named after a Phil Spector song. To be known as bmibaby, Tony Davis, managing director, claimed that the name gave the brand "a personality of its own and it will also stick in the mind".
Finally, the latest brand to be rubbing its hands at the awarding of a Royal warrant was James White, owner of the Big Tom spicy tomato juice blend. Following in the footsteps of Carphone Warehouse, which was awarded a Royal warrant last month, the firm received the warrant after supplying 300 large bottles a year to Buckingham Palace for the last five years.
The Times said the firm had wasted no time in stirring up some publicity for Big Tom, by suggesting that the Duke of Edinburgh favoured the Bloody Mary as a drink. However, Palace insiders claimed they could not remember him drinking one.
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