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Eero Lumatjarvi, general manager of Unilever’s Colour Cosmetics Business and chairman of Rimmel-Chicogo Europe, is retiring at the end of June. His role, which includes overall control of marketing, will be taken over by Geoff Peasland, vice chairman of Rimmel UK and markets director for Europe.

CK One, the unisex perfume designed by Calvin Klein, will launch in the UK this week. It entered the US market last autumn.

Asda has launched the UK’s first own-label ‘no sugar’ cola, which will go on sale this week. It will sell for 25p per can and contains artificial sweeteners.

Abbey Life has appointed Alan Dunstan, divisional director of management consultancy Qasis Group, as sales and marketing director. He will take overall responsibility for all marketing functions, including product and customer relationship strategies.

The Office of Fair Trading is to investigate the selling of travel and health insurance policies to see if consumers are getting value for money.

Cathay Pacific has appointed Ian Nash as sales and marketing manager for the UK and Ireland. He was previously marketing and sales manager for British Airways Travel Shops.

Microsoft has been forced to drop its $2bn (1.3bn) bid for personal finance software company Intuit. It feared a backlash from the anti-trust division of the US Justice Department.

British Airways’ annual pre-tax profits increased by more than 60 per cent to 452m in the year to March 31. However, 125m of this will be set aside to write-off half of its 251m investment in the loss-making venture USAir. BA carried 35.6m passengers during the year, an increase of 8.8 per cent.

Marks & Spencer’s has recorded a 72.8m rise in pre-tax profits to 924.3m in the year to March 31. Nevertheless, the City was disappointed with the results and shares fell 10p to 409p yesterday (Tuesday). M&S still retains is position as the UK’s most profitable retailer, and is thought to have benefited from cost-cutting measures earlier in the decade.

Alldays Stores has appointed Peter Skinner as head of marketing. Skinner joins from Hamleys, where he was business development manager.