Sports Calendar

Even at that level, the bank could not make a clean escape but it did manage to cut its holding from around three quarters to less than a fifth. Investors who took the stock will not be smiling for the cameras now. The story at the flotation was that the digital revolution would be great news for the group. Yesterday, the message was altogether more downbeat. Sales of digital cameras in February and March had been “considerably below” management expectations.

No wonder the shares plummeted, losing 30 per cent of their value to finish at just 108p. Jessops is not the only retailer to be feeling the pressure but the difference in its tenor between last autumn and this spring is surprising. There was certainly no hint of it in the company’s cheerful Christmas trading update, which showed like-for-like sales ahead by 6.2 per cent in December. Yet now it seems that every aspect of the business has slowed so badly that the like-for-like increase for the six months to March may be down to just 1 per cent.

The company is now predicting that improvements will set in from next month but investors are rightly viewing that claim with some scepticism. They are also now looking back at the flotation and thinking that they should probably have been a little more sceptical then, given that ABN Amro Capital wanted out and the advisers to the float included ABN Amro and its broking subsidiary Hoare Govett. Chinese walls were, no doubt, in operation throughout the procedure but independence of view might have been subtly influenced by the ownership issue.

By contrast with the depressing news from Jessops came some storming figures from Wolseley. The market for digital cameras may be fickle but the need for plumbing is constant. Wolseley’s building supplies increased sales by 10 per cent in the half year and profits by 25 per cent. In Britain and North America, Wolseley sees plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future. Investors who have seen the stock soar ahead of the FTSE have reason to say “cheese”.

Suppliers don’t need nannying

THE OFFICE of Fair Trading suspects that the main supermarket groups may be a bit tough on their suppliers. The suppliers have not complained officially to the OFT but that only adds to its suspicions. So it has sent in auditors to take a careful look and is almost certain to conclude that there is room for improvement in the way the supermarket-supplier relationship works.

But how is that to be achieved? The OFT is about to reveal its thoughts on this. It will almost certainly call for more transparency on the terms of trade but, while the supermarkets will have to go along with this to a certain extent, they will surely argue that the contracts they sign with suppliers are commercially sensitive and should not be laid bare before their competitors.

There can be little doubt that the strongest, Tesco and Wal-Mart, gain the better deals. What may have caused the accounting problem at Wm Morrison is an optimistic view that, enlarged by the Safeway acquisition, it would be able to negotiate similar discounts to those enjoyed by its larger rivals. “Forget it” seems to have been the response, causing the latest £40 million embarrassment to Sir Ken Morrison and his finance director.

The OFT may like the idea of playing referree in the dealings between supppliers and supermarkets but these are commercial negotiations between consenting companies who need each other.

Suppliers can also be tough, as Sir Ken is finding.

IF BRITAIN is enjoying a productivity miracle, as the MPC’s Kate Barker ponders, what better symbol of this new Britain than the hamster endlessly turning its wheel. For a different reason, the once trendy rodent has for the first time jumped into the shopping basket used to calculate the retail prices index. In the new Britain, even palpitating pets are being miniaturised. The National Statistician must hope poor breeding never creates a shortage, raising inflation and interest rates and triggering the hamster recession.

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