George Davies and fashion retailing Part 4

George Davies specialises in breaking new ground in the fashion business. In the 1980’s he set up Next, and made a huge success of a new concept in fashion retailing with coordinated ranges for young professional women who wanted smart clothes with a bit of fashion edge to wear for work. In the 1990’s he moved to Asda, and introduced the George fast-fashion range of great value clothing which followed the cat walk styles and were written up in Vogue and the other fashion bibles – and remains cutting-edge with the introduction of a specialist range of Asian fashion clothing reported on the blog here last week. In the 2000’s he moved on again to bring Per Una to Marks and Spencer, which was the first time M&S sold any goods under a different brand name and rejuvenated the store’s reputation for fashion clothing. 

Sources of finance: BA goes for the convertible bond

You won’t find this source of finance in any of the new A Level Business textbooks, though it is likely to be an increasingly popular option for quoted companies who want to raise substantial new financeo over the next year or two…

Q&A - Explain what a bank overdraft is

A bank overdraft is flexible borrowing facility on a bank current account which is repayable on demand.

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Q&A - What are retained profits?

Retained profit is the profit kept in the company rather than paid out to shareholders as a dividend.  Retained profit is widely regarded as the most important long-term source of finance for a business.

Sources of finance - debentures in action

As a source of finance, debentures are pretty rare in the corporate world.  So its always good to grab a recent example of how they work!

Geoff’s article in the Economics Teacher Blog on debentures issued by Wimbledon should do the trick nicely!

More flak for the banks from business customers - what have they done with bail-out cash?

In File on 4 this week, there is more criticism of the banks. The programme investigates the ‘lending squeeze’, meaning that banks who have received huge amounts of bail-out cash from the government are not handing it on as loans to help small businesses. This was intended to be a condition of the help that the government extended to the banks, in order to help keep the wheels of the economy moving. Small businesses often need cash to help them through periods when they forecast negative cash flow – there is a clear pattern that businesses are finding it ever tougher to borrow, even if they are well established and have a good record and working relationship with their bank. 

Small businesses shun business bank accounts

An interesting news piece for anyone teaching the sources of finance for start-ups and small businesses.  It seems that the business accounts of the big high street banks just don’t compete with the retail (consumer) sector when it comes to savings rates and other services.

Credit crunch gets personal for small business owners

A common source of finance for small businesses is an unsecured bank loan taken out by the entrepreneur which gets invested in the fledgling business.  Now the credit crunch threatens to make life very tough for this kind of finance.

Balance sheet blinkers

Many owners of small and medium-sized businesses in the UK are burying their heads in the sand when it comes to their business debts. As the credit crunch takes hold, it is worth those entrepreneurs keeping a close eye on their balance sheets.