Business Comment

Ocado hopes to be able to reach 85 per cent of UK households after a new distribution depot is opened

David Prosser: Ocado needs to put its foot down on new deliveries

Outlook Ocado had better get a move on getting its new distributioncentre, the site for which was secured yesterday, up andrunning. The attraction of the new Warwickshire depot is not just that it will expand the online grocer's coverage to about 85 per cent of UK households, from 65 per cent today, but also that it will free up resources at its existing Hatfield centre. Some of the capacity there is currently used to serve thegrocer's northern customers and once Warwickshire is operational, Ocado will be able to reallocate this to customers in the South.

Inside Business Comment

David Prosser: Time to reconsider 20 per cent VAT

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Outlook Among the many troubling details underlying the headline inflation figures yesterday was the revelation that the cost of clothing rose by 6.4 per cent between August and September, the biggest ever rise recorded during that period. Annual inflation in the clothing sector is now running at 0.9 per cent, the highest level since records began in 1997. The days of ever-cheaper clothes are behind us.

David Prosser: The oil lobby secures a speedy triumph

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Outlook How quickly we forget. Three months ago, the world watched with fascination and horror as a series of BP failures to cap its leaking Gulf of Mexico well saw it become public enemy number one in the US, prompting President Obama to announce a moratorium on deepwater drilling.