BUSINESS NEWS
Domino's Pizza yesterday reported a 10.3 % surge in sales in the run up to Christmas thanks to popular TV shows and freezing weather.  The group did admitt that it struggled to make some deliveries in the snow.

Recruitment:
Waitrose will create 3,000 jobs by opening 39 new shops this year.  The announcement follows the company's best Christmas which saw sales increase by 8.9% in the first 23 days of the month - metro

Samsung yesterday revealed plans to hire 25,000 new workers and invest £24.5 billion to help take a bite out of Apple's dominance. - metro

SKY:
Recruitment group Hays sees 1% growth in net fees in the quarter ending Dec 31st - private sector off-setting public sector [via Twitter]

UK store sales at Majestic Wine rose 6.4% in the 9 weeks of its Christmas trading - thanks customers for "battling through" December snow [via Twitter]

December snow hits business at Cineworld but company says rest of year makes up for that performance - 4.7% rise in revenues during 2010 [via Twitter]

Mothercare says UK sales down 1.9% in its 3rd quarter, which included Xmas - "sales were impacted significantly by adverse winter weather". [via Twitter]

Clinton Cards issues profits warning after reporting a 2.1% fall in Group Christmas sales. [via Twitter]


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LOCAL SPORT
08 Jan 11 | Premier Division
AFC Hornchurch         VS    Lowestoft Town        
Billericay Town         VS    Kingstonian
Concord Rangers         VS    Hendon    
Folkestone Invicta         VS    Aveley    
Harrow Borough         VS    Canvey Island    

08 Jan 11 | Division One North
Brentwood Town         VS    Thamesmead Town    
Enfield Town         VS    East Thurrock United
Grays Athletic         VS    Maldon & Tiptree
Great Wakering Rovers     VS    Cheshunt    
Heybridge Swifts         VS    Waltham Abbey    
Needham Market         VS    Tilbury    
Potters Bar Town         VS    Harlow Town
Redbridge         VS    Ilford    
Romford             VS    Wingate & Finchley
Waltham Forest         VS    Leyton    


Evening Echo, By Chris Phillips
BLUES have confirmed that their matchday admission prices for the remainder of the season will not be affected by the rise in VAT.

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PETE's SPORTING ROUNDUP:
So, overall last night a great evening for Man U, without even kicking a ball! And watch this space, because there's 4 premier league managers under intense pressure for their jobs, especially Roy Hodgson and Avram Grant. This weekend it's the great FA Cup 3rd round weekend, not too many opportunities for a giant killing (unless Barnsley lose to West Ham ;) but some cracking games, notably Arsenal vs Leeds at 12.45 on Saturday, and Man U vs Liverpool at 1.30pm on Sunday.

Cricket - we've already retained the ashes, but we haven't quite won them just yet. Play resumes tonight at 11pm, England needing just 3 more wickets to complete another massive victory down under and to win the Ashes by 3 tests to 1. Records have tumbled throughout the series, it has been a wonderful tour for England, in particular Essex's Alistair Cook who was under a lot of pressure going into the first test, and proceeded to hit loads of runs including a double century in Adelaide, and he's ended up as the highest England scorer in a test series down under for almost 90 years. It should all be wrapped up fairly soon, so only one more night of coffee and matchsticks in the eyes to go!

Rugby Union - Harlequins vs Wasps this weekend, at 2.45 on Saturday, and when the two teams meet in the LV Cup at the end of January, that game was due to be played in Wycombe, but will now take place in Abu Dhabi!

Darts continues on at the BDO World Championship at the Lakeside, into the quarter finals now with number 1 seed Martin Adams still going, just about, after a sudden-death victory. Final is this weekend and there's coverage on the BBC.

LOCAL NEWS
SOUTHEND Airport has just started advertising the first of 60 new jobs it expects to create by 2012.  The positions need to be filled so it can emerge as a fully-functioning regional airport by that date.  On offer is employment ranging from fire service and operational agents and passenger service agents to handling agent and even an operational duty manager.  The airport expects to be handling two million passengers a year by 2020.

THEATRE NEWS
Peter Pan at Cliffs Pavilion until Sunday 9th January 9th  - two performances a day at 2.15pm and 7.15pm
The Darling children travel to Neverland to battle with Captain Hook

Sleeping Beauty at Kenneth More Theatre until the 22nd January with various show times.

Aladdin at Queen's Theatre until Sarurday 15th January with various show times
A traditional pantomime written by Nicholas Pegg with music and lyrics by Carol Sloman

Mark Thomas and Extreme Rambling is on at the Colchester Arts Centre on January 25-26th , for more details go to: http://www.markthomasinfo.com/section_gigs/.