Business

Musgrave Wholesale Partners has signed a contract worth €6m over three years to supply chilled, frozen and ambient foods to Debenhams Ireland. The deal will see Musgrave Wholesale Partners supply approximately 600 product lines directly to 11 Debenhams stores in Ireland, four of which are in Northern Ireland. “Musgrave Wholesale Partners has supplied Debenhams with chilled, frozen and ambient foods for nine years and we are delighted to extend our excellent working relationship for another three years,” said Noel Keeley, managing director of Musgrave Wholesale Partners. “At Musgrave Wholesale Partners we are committed to offering our customers best in class value, service and product range. This ongoing commitment combined with…

Business confidence improved strongly at the start of 2013 with most indicators in IBEC’s latest business sentiment survey climbing to the highest levels since 2009. Sales and order book indicators point towards growth and one in four managers indicated that they would be hiring new employees in the coming quarter. IBEC chief economist Fergal O’Brien said the improvement in confidence was mainly due to recovery in the domestic economy. “Consumer spending and business investment made a positive contribution to growth in the second half of last year and CEOs expect this trend to continue into 2013. The Irish economy is clearly re-balancing and it is very positive to see the…

Building materials group CRH has reported a 5pc drop in profit before tax for 2012 to €674m and its chief executive Myles Lee is to retire at the end of this year, having reached the age of 60. Sales revenue for the group went up by 3pc to reach €18.65bn. Lee, who has been at the helm for five years, said the results for 2012 reflected progress in CRH’s Americas operations helped by a strong recovery in residential construction and improving overall economic activity in the US. In contrast, he said, its European businesses had to contend with weakening consumer and investor confidence within the Eurozone. “Assuming no major financial…

IT Force, in partnership with Strencom, has won a contract worth more than €150,000 to provide a private cloud and connectivity system to the Insomnia chain of coffee shops. “We had encountered a number of difficulties in relation to our IT infrastructure and connectivity network, resulting in persistent issues in store,” said Insomnia chairman, Bobby Kerr.  “Ultimately our IT resources were being devoured by small and repeat issues, which was both frustrating and expensive in terms of downtime and staff resources. “The IT Force and Strencom solution made perfect business sense for us, enabling us to eliminate the IT issues, while providing a smart network that was scalable and robust…

Sky, Acorn Life and the Department of Health in Western Australia are among the organisations that will be recruiting and providing advice at next month’s Jobs Expo, where thousands of Irish and overseas jobs will be on offer, according to the event organisers. Learning Ireland, which runs the event, says Jobs Expo 2013 will provide job seekers with real opportunities to find a new job. Taking place from 11am to 5pm on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 February in the Hogan Suite in Croke Park, the event is free of charge and will include a diverse range of companies with “a large number of job offers”. Confirmed organisations that will be there include…

Betting and gaming company Ladbrokes said today it has agreed to buy Global Betting Exchange Alderney Ltd (GBEA), the operator of the Betdaq exchange business, for an initial consideration of €30m on a cash free/debt free basis from TBH Ltd. Ladbrokes said it has also agreed to buy from TBH a 10pc stake in TBH Guernsey Ltd, the technology provider to GBEA, for €4m, with a call option to acquire the remaining shares in TBHG after four years. The transaction is subject to certain conditions and is expected to complete in late February 2013. “The Betdaq exchange is a well-regarded and well invested business and a close strategic fit for…

Better than expected year on year sales growth of 25pc over the past three months by Primark has boosted profits for parent company Associated British Foods (ABF). Primark sales were driven by an increase in selling space of 14pc and superior sales densities in the larger new stores. Fourteen new stores opened in the past three months, ten of which were on continental Europe, bringing the total number of Primark stores worldwide up to 256. The company refurbished its flagship Dublin store, and relocated its Sunderland store to a bigger site. ABF, which also owns the Twinings, Ovaltine, Ryvita and Jordans brands, said overall revenue rose 10pc, despite problems in…

Visa card expenditure in Ireland reaches €15.5bn There was a 43pc rise in the number of Visa cards in Ireland since 2011 to reach 4.9 million for the year ending 30 September 2012 with annual expenditure reaching €15.5bn, an increase of 17pc. This means €1 in every €7 of consumer spending in Ireland is now on a Visa card — either debit, credit or prepaid cards. There was a 26pc increase in the number of transactions during the course of 2012, with 201 million transactions taking place during the 12 month period. Visa Europe said growth in Ireland was driven from consumers becoming more comfortable paying with Visa cards particularly for lower-value…

Pension fund assets performed strongly in 2012, with fund values up an average of 13pc to 17pc during the year, according to pension experts Mercer. “Global equities were up by 15pc during 2012, and have almost doubled in value since their lows of March 2009” according to Patrick McKenna, senior consultant with Mercer’s Financial Strategy Group.  “Furthermore, Eurozone sovereign bond markets also performed strongly, with average returns also ranging from 15pc-20pc, resulting in further gains for pension funds”, commented McKenna. However, pension scheme liabilities have also grown materially over 2012, due to the continuing decline in the yield available on ‘safe haven’ German government and other high quality sovereign and…

Many Irish businesses are facing increased security threats in 2013, according to IT security specialist Integrity Solutions. Mobile malware, securing the big data mountain, increasingly sophisticated social engineering, social networking attacks, and issues surrounding security and compliance in the cloud will all become more prevalent this year, it said. Following major security breaches in recent times at large international businesses such as Sony, LinkedIn, Global Payments and RSA, even the most successful organisations are finding it difficult to protect all of their data, all of the time, the company noted. In Ireland, there were a smaller number of high-profile security breaches in 2012 but this should not put organisations off…