Sky reports 7% sales boost in First Quarter: Sky has reported group revenue up 7% to £3.1 billion, with like-for-like revenue up over 5% in its First Quarter. Over 100,000 new customers joined Sky, including Italy’s highest Q1 customer growth in four years. Jeremy Darroch, group chief executive, said: “I’m pleased with the start we have made to the year, with like-for-like revenue growth of over 5% and more than 100,000 new customers joining Sky. We finished the quarter strongly after a slower start against the backdrop of the Rio Olympics and UEFA Euro 2016. It was also a strong quarter of innovation with the launch of our new streaming service, Sky Ticket, in Germany; Ultra HD in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria; and our enhanced mobile TV proposition, Sky Go Extra, in Italy, as we transform all our markets to multi- platform distribution services. We are on track financially in a year of investment on screen. We are bringing customers the very best TV with more of the biggest Premier League matches, Europe’s best box set service and more new and exclusive original drama. We are already seeing the benefit with good growth in revenues, more new customers joining us and existing customers consuming more. Alongside this we are making very strong progress on efficiency with operating costs for the quarter lower than a year ago in absolute terms. Looking ahead, the forthcoming launch of our mobile proposition will add another major product offering to our UK line up and will give our customers the opportunity to take even more from a brand known for great customer service and quality products. In Germany, the upcoming launch of Sky 1 builds on a series of recent steps transforming the appeal of our proposition beyond our traditional sports base, including the new Entertainment pack, adding Sky Box Sets to the service, and our new Sky+ Pro set-top box. And in Italy, customers can look forward to a quarter of unprecedented innovation, with the launch of HD programming on demand, a brand new user interface and our Sky Kids app all coming before Christmas. We are on track as we enter our busy Q2 trading period and we remain focussed on delivering our clear strategy for growth.”

Vianet reports ‘good growth’: Vianet Group, the leading provider of real time monitoring systems, data management services and business intelligence for the leisure and vending sectors, has reported continuing businesses for the first half of the current financial year was ahead of the same period last year, achieving good growth in line with the board’s expectations. Against that background the board intends to declare a maintained interim dividend of 1.7 pence per share. It added: “The group’s UK core beer flow monitoring operations, including iDraught, has continued to strengthen its market position and maintained its contribution, and encouragingly there are signs that the rate of pub closures in the sector has slowed down. Vending Telemetry has continued to extend its penetration of the European market which has helped deliver first half growth, with good ongoing prospects.” James Dickson, chairman, said: “We have continued to make good commercial progress by delivering highly relevant solutions that drive strong returns for our customers. Given the group’s encouraging prospects and mindful of our desire to continue to provide a superior yield for our shareholders, the board intends to declare a maintained interim dividend of 1.7 pence per share.” 

Booker reports sale and profit rise: Booker has reported total sales rose 14% to £2.5bn in the 24 weeks to 9 September. Like-for-like non-tobacco sales up 0.1% and tobacco sales down 5.6% due to the “display ban”. Profit before tax was up 9% to £81.0m. The group’s trading in the first four weeks of the current half year is ahead of the same period last year. We anticipate that the challenging consumer and market environment will persist through the coming year and the UK’s food market remains very competitive. We will continue to deliver our plans to Focus, Drive and Broaden the business to provide our customers with better choice, prices and service. Booker Group remains on course to meet its expectations for the year ending 24 March 2017. Chief executive Charles Wilson said: “This was a good half. Our plans to Focus, Drive and Broaden the business remain on track. We strive to improve choice, prices and service for our catering, retail and small business customers. Londis and Budgens joined the group last September and the turnaround of the businesses is going well. We look forward to helping our customers prosper in the second half.”