Sainsbury’s boosts pay as part of £205m inflation package January 4, 2023 Sainsbury’s is investing £185m in pay bumps for staff as the supermarket looks to retain staff during a period of high inflation and rising cost of living. Pay will increase to £11 per hour for retail staff, with London workers paid £11.95. It represents a 10 per cent pay hike over the past year when [...]
Osborne set to OK loan of Elgin Marbles to Greece: reports January 4, 2023 The so-called Elgin Marbles could soon be returned to Greece as the British Museum reportedly closes in on a landmark deal. George Osborne, chairman of the British Museum and former Tory chancellor, is understood to have drawn up an agreement with Athens as part of a “cultural exchange”, according to The Daily Telegraph. It comes [...]
Waitrose stops selling single-use vapes January 3, 2023 Waitrose has stopped selling single-use vapes due to concerns about the negative impacts on the environment and young people’s health. “While we have robust controls under our Challenge 25 Policy, we are concerned about the risk these products pose by appealing to younger people – as well the environmental impact,” the supermarket said in a [...]
Aldi posts record December sales of £1.4bn after Christmas and World Cup surge January 3, 2023 Aldi today said it had achieved record December sales of more than £1.4bn following a surge in demand over the winter month, as the Christmas period coincided with the World Cup in Qatar. The budget supermarket said its sales increased 26 per cent during December, despite the UK’s cost-of-living crisis, due to surging demand for meats, cheeses [...]
Bowl food buffet: Poke House looks to raise almost £50m for expansion January 3, 2023 The boss of restaurant chain Poke House said it is planning to launch a funding round worth up to 50 million euros (£44 million) as the business continues to eye up opportunities to grow. Matteo Pichi, the group’s chief executive and co-founder, told the PA news agency he wants the chain to remain a global [...]
Dry January: Pub bosses call on Brits to do their duty and get down the local – even if it’s for non-alcoholic beers January 3, 2023 Publicans have issued a rallying cry for punters to continue to back their local boozer this month as the industry battles an economic downturn – despite the growing trend for a ‘dry January‘ month off the sauce. The sector has struggled with sky-high energy bills all while consumers’ feel the pinch of household bills increasing [...]
Show’s off: Cineworld dismisses talk of deal with Odeon-owner AMC January 3, 2023 Beleaguered cinema chain Cineworld rubbished suggestions it was in talks to sell off some of its assets to Odeon-owner AMC today, after the US firm claimed it had been in talks to snap up some of Cineworld’s US and European theatres last month. London-listed Cineworld, the world’s second largest cinema chain, filed for bankruptcy in [...]
Sky high? Wizz Air enjoys Christmas bump as passenger levels increase January 3, 2023 London-listed budget airline Wizz Air will be avoiding the January blues this year after a pre-Christmas traveller bump boosted 2022’s passenger numbers. The airline flew 4.18m passengers in December, up more than 50 per cent on this time last year when some parts of its European network were affected by Omicron travel destinations. The December [...]
Grocers set for £550m tax reduction over next three years January 3, 2023 UK supermarkets and grocers will benefit from an almost £550 million tax cut over the next three years, according to new analysis. It comes after more than half a million retail properties in England and Wales were revalued as part of a shake-up to the business rates system of property taxes. Analysis of official government [...]
Retail footfall dropped by more than a quarter in week after Christmas January 2, 2023 Footfall across the UK’s retail destinations dropped by more than a quarter in the week after Christmas compared with the week before, figures show. Retail expert Springboard said footfall last week was 27.7 per cent lower than the week before, and 19.7 per cent down on the same week in 2019. It was just 7.2 [...]