Carpetright to report lower profits
A picture of consumer confidence will emerge next week with updates from sectors covering restaurants, online gambling and department stores.Carpetright's annual profits could be as little as £3 million on Tuesday, down from £17 million a year ago and £62 million in better times in 2008.
It has rocked investors with a series of profit warnings over the last year and the City will be fearful that another one could be in the pipeline. However, there are some rays of hope for the retailer, whose UK sales fell 5% in the year to April amid weak consumer spending and price competition.
Like-for-like sales returned to growth in the final weeks of its financial year and the poor summer weather may have prompted more people to start home improvement projects rather than head outdoors. It also has a new boss after ex-Sainsbury's director Darren Shapland returned to the firm as chief executive.
Greene King should toast a 9% rise in profits on Thursday after it reaped the benefit of Britons' appetite for eating out on special occasions.
The owner of Hungry Horse, Old English Inns and Loch Fyne Restaurants took £2 million on Christmas Day during a record festive period and sold another 220,000 meals on Mother's Day, up 16% on the previous year.
Trade was also helped by March's heatwave and the introduction of a new spring menu, while the new financial year should have seen the Bury St Edmunds-based group buoyed by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee despite the weather.
Online gaming firm Betfair is set to report record profits on Friday as new smartphone apps produce a surge in popularity of on-the-move gambling.
The company, whose exchange allows punters to set their own odds and bet against one another, said the number of wagers placed from mobiles more than doubled to 11 million in the three months to the end of January.
The strong growth was driven by new apps for the iPhone and iPad and one specifically for horseracing, while it also launched mobile casino games.
The owner of Hungry Horse, Old English Inns and Loch Fyne Restaurants took £2 million on Christmas Day during a record festive period and sold another 220,000 meals on Mother's Day, up 16% on the previous year.
Trade was also helped by March's heatwave and the introduction of a new spring menu, while the new financial year should have seen the Bury St Edmunds-based group buoyed by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee despite the weather.
Online gaming firm Betfair is set to report record profits on Friday as new smartphone apps produce a surge in popularity of on-the-move gambling.
The company, whose exchange allows punters to set their own odds and bet against one another, said the number of wagers placed from mobiles more than doubled to 11 million in the three months to the end of January.
The strong growth was driven by new apps for the iPhone and iPad and one specifically for horseracing, while it also launched mobile casino games.
© 2013 Press Association