Tesco hands out £193m to investors to settle accounting scandal October 7, 2021 Tesco has handed out £193m to settle an accounting scandal from seven years ago, a larger figure than it received from the UK’s fraud watchdog. The country’s largest supermarket confirmed that it had settled claims from investors with two law firms that had brought legal proceedings against it last September. The investors include Allianz, Russell [...]
Exclusive: HMRC plotting crackdown on holiday let tax avoiders after record staycation season October 7, 2021 Owners of UK holiday lets face fresh investigations by HMRC after Britain’s record staycation boom of the last two years, accountants at UHY Hacker Young told City A.M. this morning. HMRC has the power to request information or documents from third parties such as holiday booking sites “for the purpose of checking the taxpayer’s tax [...]
Covid pandemic accounts for around 15 per cent drop in retail footfall October 7, 2021 Retail footfall continued to strengthen in September, with analysts estimating that the Covid pandemic had caused around a 15 per cent drop in footfall. In September, footfall was down 17.4 per cent on 2019 levels, compared to being down 18.6 per cent in August, according to fresh data from Springboard. Footfall declined from 2019 by [...]
No comment from Tesco on takeover talk as it promises customers a good Christmas October 6, 2021 Tesco has denied its share buyback programme has anything to do with private equity takeover rumours. Following US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice winning Morrisons at auction with a bid of £7bn, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been singled out as next in line for a takeover. Tesco said it would purchase £500m of [...]
Next boss: Not constructive to say UK is addicted to cheap overseas labour October 6, 2021 Next boss Lord Wolfson has hit back at the Prime Minister’s claims that businesses like his want the government to “fix every problem” by lifting immigration controls. Lord Wolfson, who supported Brexit, told CityAM last month he would urge the government to ease immigration in line with demand, to help fill roles in retail and [...]
Shoppers are already panic buying frozen turkeys as Christmas shortage looms October 6, 2021 As a shortage of turkeys is looming this Christmas, shoppers are already buying frozen turkeys in a bid to avoid any potential disruption to their Christmas dinner, the boss of Tesco has said. The supermarket giant said it was confident of good product availability for Christmas but there could still be “bumps in the road” [...]
Mothercare’s new passage to India October 6, 2021 Buggies to bibs retailer Mothercare is to enter the potentially lucrative Indian market where there are 110m toddlers. Mothercare has signed a franchise agreement with Shopper-Stop to open 40 stores in India over the next five years. The first outlet will open in April 2006. “The exciting thing about India is there are 110m kids [...]
Ocado invests £10m into self-driving tech startup Wayve October 6, 2021 Self-driving tech startup Wayve’s total funding raised has hit $60m following an investment from grocer Ocado. Ocado is investing £10m ($13.6m) in a partnership with Wayve that will develop autonomous grocery deliveries. An autonomous delivery trial will involve a number of Ocado delivery vans on busy London routes – with a human driver to oversee [...]
Adidas sells Reebok to Authentic Brands for €2.1bn October 6, 2021 Adidas is selling Reebok to Authentic Brands Group for €2.1bn (£1.8bn) as the German sports giant looks to double down on its core brand. The deal is a significant markdown on the €3.1bn Adidas paid for Reebok in 2006 — a move intended to help compete with rival Nike. The merger failed to pay off [...]
One in three Brits plans to stockpile food and drink this month for Christmas October 6, 2021 One third of consumers have already stockpiled food and drink items for Christmas, or are likely to before the end of the month. A survey from Lumina Intelligence found that more than half (56 per cent) of consumers were somewhat worried about media coverage of others stockpiling. 10 per cent said they were very worried. [...]