Businesses catering to the tastes of the older consumer will find their audience richer

Businesses catering to the tastes of the older consumer will find their audience richer than ever before: 78 per cent of the 45-60 age-group are owner occupiers, compared with around 60 per cent of the over-70s.Watch out, for example, for a boom in exotic foreign holidays aimed at older travellers, as Mintel the market research firm predicted last year. The Joint Hospitality Industry Congress warned members last week to consider extra disabled access for restaurants and bigger type-faces for menus to cope with an older clientele.The retired want different services from the yuppies and dinkies of the Eighties and Nineties. New research by Professor Richard Disney in today’s issue of Fiscal Studies suggests that the key to the changes to come may lie in the rash reactions of the young, rather than the spendthrift habits of the old.The idea that elderly consumer markets will expand seems well founded The leisure and catering industries think so. Economists then argue further about whether this kind of drop in savings will be bad for growth.
But the changes may not be quite as we anticipate. Expanding markets for these new richer grey consumers, and falling national savings rates (as more people draw down their savings in retirement) are only two of the biggest consequences that most people expect. In 30 years, this sentence will be twice the size – the type that is, not the number of words. Because doubtless the average reader will have failing eyesight, just like the rest of us.

By 2030, a quarter of the European population will be over 65, against only 15 per cent today, and businesses, governments and economists are already starting to anticipate huge changes to come. The market suspects he is looking for a buyer; if he has to hang around much longer without realising a profit he could be tempted in to mounting a bid.His involvement at Union, once the proud Union Discount Company of London, has also been unrewarding, prompting talk that his 16.7 per cent is available.Whittard of Chelsea, the tea and coffee group, managed a strong debut, hitting 158p against a 148p placing, Body Shop International shaded 3p to 180p as Ian McGlinn, an original backer, trimmed his stake to 23.8 per cent.Brent Walker fell 0.5p to 2.5p on stories it had dumped plans to float its Pubmaster subsidiary and was banking on a sale to a trade group or City-backed consortium.. Joseph Lewis, the Bahamas-based investor, continues to sit on a near-30 per cent stake although stories flow that he is looking to sell.Mr Lewis has latched on other investment opportunities, Union, the financial group, and English National, an investment trust. He has established a reputation as a long-term investor but the dull performance of Christies must be testing his patience. The shares of the repairer of defective computer chips have come down from 557p a year ago. It has already warned of the dire consequences of the slump in chip prices.Worries about the signalled Carlsberg Tetley deal left Bass 5p down at 797p with Allied Domecq seeking yet another low, off 3p at 450p.Scottish & Newcastle, figures next week, ignored supportive NatWest Securities comments, losing 3p to 652p.Christies International, the fine arts auctioneer, had a difficult session, falling 8p to 214p.

The group’s problems impacted on Memory Corporation, off 15p at just 75p. The shares peaked at 97p but Merrill says: “We are at a loss to explain this strength.” The securities group admits bid speculation is in the air but believes the shares are a sell.Magnum Power’s increased loss left the shares nursing a 23p loss at 54p; the price touched 180p last year. Merrill Lynch is puzzled about the lack of positive news from a recent US jaunt. It looks for pounds 25.5m this year and pounds 28.5m for next. In busy trading the shares fell another 1.5p to 221p, leaving once again a yawning 14p gap from the flotation price.United Utilities, up 9p at 539p, was helped by James Capel support and speculation of a US deal.Talk is strong that a leading American utility is thinking of a merger or at least an in-depth trading link-up.Camas, the building materials group, slipped 2.5p to 89.5p.

The second-liners continued their unrelenting retreat, with the FT-SE 250 index off 24.4 points at 4,340.9.Asda’s much-in-line profit performance left the shares 4p off at 114p and Boots’s pounds 300m buyback at 580p came as no surprise, with the price a shade lower at 580p.BTR rallied from its recent low point, achieving a 5p gain to 255p, and fellow conglomerate struggler Hanson managed to edge ahead 3p to 179p.Danka Business Systems gave up a further 20p to 470p as the market struggled to accommodate the unexpectedly downbeat trading statement and Cardinal Business fell 8p to 24.5p after reporting increased losses and the sale of its office products side for pounds 6.3m.Sun Life & Provincial, the new issue flop, continued to let down its supporters. Pelican dived 11.5p to 144p and Yates shaded 3p to 385p.Elsewhere Grosvenor Inns stumbled 10p to 265p; Regent Inns 24p to 196p and JD Wetherspoon 48p to 990p.Groupe Chez Gerard was also mauled off 15p to 234p; Springwood, the Fatty Arbuckle theme pub chain, fell 5p at 718p.Away from the smoked salmon, oriental chicken and pint of beer agenda the market was in a dour mood with the FT-SE 100 index off 16.7 points at 3,678.8. The high-flying pub and restaurant companies, which have comfortably outperformed, could soon find themselves slipping from the stock market’s growth menu. Figures from Pelican, the restaurant group, and Yate’s Wine Lodges, confirmed trading is getting tougher with demand for new sites squeezing up the cost of expansion.
Rank Organisation, the nation’s biggest leisure group, underlined the pressure on recreational spending when it reported restaurant trading below last year’s levels.Perhaps not surprising, then, that the catering high-flyers should be dragged from their elevated bar stools Rank set the tone, off 33p at 498p. The improvement in the exports was even more significant in relation to non-EU countries, rising 4 per cent to pounds 6.016bn.The trade figures released yesterday exclude so-called “invisible earnings” from services, interest earnings and dividends.Alex Garrard, an economist at Swiss banking group UBS, said: “The rising domestic demand has resulted in a pick-up in imports and this trend is going to continue for the foreseeable future.

Weak European markets will mean that the UK manufacturing sector will find it hard to expand in the near-term,” he said.Mr Garrard added that the EU component of the deficit could be the cause of “some concern” towards the year-end.The trade deficit with EU countries reached pounds 527m, the highest since October last year, in part reflecting the economic slowdown taking place on the Continent.The shortfall with countries outside the EU also widened to pounds 834m.In the three months to April, total exports rose 3.1 per cent compared with the previous six months, while imports were up 3.8 per cent in the same period.. Excluding erratic items, the deficit widened to pounds 1.336bn from pounds 1.132bn.The “mad cow” crisis, which has blocked British beef exports to Europe, was partly responsible for the Britain’s exports to EU countries dropping 2.5 per cent in April to pounds 7.83bn.However, total UK exports in April rose to pounds 13.85bn, a 0.3 per cent increase on the previous month. Whatever the temptations of a pre-election year, we will be urging the Chancellor to stick to his belief that good economics is good politics.”Mr Turner’s comments came as the Office for National Statistics yesterday released figures showing that the UK’s global trade deficit in April was higher than expected at pounds 1.322bn, and a 73 per cent increase over the pounds 765m gap recorded in March. The facts are that public borrowing has not come down at anything like the pace envisaged, and remains high after four years of growth.”He said that the budget deficit was still high, and reduction must be a priority “Stability and continuity must be the watchwords. NIC CICUTTI

Adair Turner, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, yesterday warned the Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, not to plump for a pre- election tax-cutting Budget, claiming that the economy did not need one, anyway.
Mr Turner said that even if the Chancellor were tempted to introduce tax cuts, public borrowing levels were unlikely to allow scope for any significant move in that direction.”Consumer expenditure has grown by 2.5 per cent over the last year, sales of household goods are picking up, and the housing market is beginning to stir,” he told the CBI’s South-east region annual dinner.He added: “We expect further acceleration, with robust consumer spending growth next year, even without any tax cuts. Yesterday Pen Kent, a Bank director, made clear his exasperation with corporate lenders who are returning to all the bad habits that got them into trouble last time, such as lending at non-existent margins with low security and weak covenants.With the Bank of England remaining so sceptical, the idea that banks have reached some kind of promised land in which the cycle of greed and repentance is abolished is plainly ridiculous..