LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Dixons, Europe’s No.2
electricals retailer, narrowed its group loss for the first half
of the year with strong demand for tablets and televisions
pushing it to a first profit in the UK and Ireland for five
years.

Dixons, home to the Currys and PC World chains in Britain,
on Thursday reported an underlying pretax loss of 22.2 million
pounds ($35.48 million) for the 24 weeks to Oct. 13, ahead of
expectations for a similar loss of 25.3 million made a year ago.

LONDON (Reuters) – British travel group Thomas Cook (TCG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it had seen a strong finish to its fourth quarter as its recovery plan cranked into gear, after a year in which operating profit nearly halved.

Thomas Cook said on Wednesday winter bookings were ahead of committed capacity in all markets at improved prices.

LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) – British soft drinks maker Britvic
said production of its Fruit Shoot children’s drink
would be back to normal by January after a costly recall due to
faulty caps, along with a cool summer, hit annual profit.

The maker of Tango and Robinsons drinks, which this month
agreed terms on a 1.4 billion pound ($2.2 billion) merger with
A.G. Barr, said on Tuesday underlying pretax profit fell
19 percent to 84.4 million pounds in the year ended Sept. 30.

LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Britain’s West Midlands police
force has decided against letting private firms run some of its
core services, landing the latest blow to an outsourcing sector
expecting a wave of justice work.

The force’s new police commissioner Bob Jones said plans to
look for a private partner to run services from street patrols,
to guarding crime scenes and collecting CCTV footage would be
scrapped. A task force would instead focus on IT improvements.

LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Premier Foods is to axe
around 900 jobs at its bread division as part of an ongoing move
to cut debt that will see Britain’s biggest food producer close
two bakeries and four distribution centres.

The shake-up, designed to help the performance of Hovis – a
key brand, will result in an initial charge of 28 million pounds
($45 million) that should be recovered through site disposals
and more efficient operations, Premier Foods said.

LONDON (Reuters) – British mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse (CPW.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) would consider buying out Best Buy (BBY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) from the two firms’ European joint venture if a bid for the U.S. group succeeds, it said on Wednesday.

Carphone, Europe’s biggest independent mobile phone retailer, would be entitled to buy Best Buy’s 50 percent stake in CPW Europe if Best Buy founder Richard Schulze succeeds with a bid for the U.S. firm expected in December.

LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Britain’s state-owned Royal Mail
Group posted a large rise in first half operating
profit on Tuesday, paving the way for one of the country’s most
high profile privatisations in decades.

An increase in profits was seen as a key target in plans for
a flotation now expected as early as the third quarter of next
year, as Royal Mail shows potential investors the impact of its
move from a letters-based to parcels-based business.

LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – British banknote printer De La
Rue warned its annual profit would be lower than
expected after a number of key currency orders expected in the
second half of this year were pushed back.

“It will now be too late for these orders to benefit the
current financial year, and as a result the board expects that
the financial results of the group for 2012/13 will be similar
to those for 2011/12,” the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Security group G4S missed
out on contracts to run British prisons on Thursday, paying the
price for embarrassing the government by failing to provide
enough guards at the London Olympics.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was widely expected to hand
the majority of seven contracts to manage state-run prisons to
the private sector, but instead said it would keep three under
public sector management after the bids failed to impress.

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Security firm G4S, whose
reputation was tarnished earlier this year by its failure to
provide enough guards for the London Olympic Games, said it was
fighting back thanks to strong emerging markets and new UK
contracts.

The world’s biggest security firm reported on Tuesday a pick
up in underlying revenue growth in the third quarter.