Business Diary: 13/03/2010

Asda's selective memory for figures

On Monday, George at Asda launched a 100-day returns policy across its clothing range to a great publicity fanfare.

In the editors' notes to the press release, George states that it "recently overtook M&S as the UK's number one clothing retailer in terms of volume" with a 10.1 per cent market share. However, the TNS data it references is from October 2009. Curiously, there was no mention of the fact that M&S is now back in the top spot with a 13.1 per cent market share, ahead of Primark's 10.8 per cent with George trailing at 9.5 per cent for the 12 weeks to 31 January 2010. Funny that, eh?

A resourceful use of Chelsea FC by HR

What's the biggest issue facing HR managers today? The peccadillos of Chelsea's footballers, apparently. Human Resources magazine has used the footballers' headline-grabbing behaviour to offer advice on how to act when an employee's activities outside the workplace damage team morale. The verdict? Take prompt and effective action, be consistent and fair, and take preventative steps. Well, duh.

Samsung's bid to bag the Wags with phone

Now we're on the subject of Chelsea, here's sponsor Samsung, using its marketing muscle to get added value from the millions it pays to have its name splashed across the Blues' shirts. Having sewn up the players, it hopes their Wags will buy a truly cringe-worthy new phone called "Diva". You'd think the wives and girlfriends would have more taste, but looking at some of them, maybe Samsung's on to something.

Pimlico Plumber off to Spain over tax grab

The latest plutocrat to threaten to quit Britain over the new 50 per cent top rate of tax is Charlie Mullins the millionaire boss of Pimlico Plumbers who's considering a move to Spain. That'll do wonders for response times.

Number of the day: 105

As in Repo 105: the "repo" deals that Lehmans booked as sales, shifting $50bn off-balance sheet in the process