Budget 2020: Business rates cut for more small leisure and retail firms March 11, 2020 Small retail, leisure and hospitality businesses will be exempt from paying business rates for one year as part of an emergency budget to protect the economy from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. All retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with a rateable value of less than £51,000 will be exempt from paying business rates over [...]
Debenhams appoints headhunters for new chief executive March 11, 2020 Struggling department store Debenhams has reportedly launched a search for a new chief executive as restructuring expert Stefaan Vansteenkiste prepares to step down after less than a year. Vansteenkiste is set to leave the role within months, after taking over in August, and headhunter Spencer Stuart has been brought in to find a replacement, Sky [...]
Puma scraps coronavirus guidance as outbreak spreads March 11, 2020 German sportswear giant Puma scrapped previous coronavirus guidance this morning, saying that its business will not return to normal in the short term. Puma had previously said it expected sales and profits to decline in the first quarter after it was forced to temporarily close stores in China, where the outbreak began. However, today the [...]
Lookers shares dive as suspected fraud delays financial results March 11, 2020 Shares in car dealership chain Lookers plunged this morning after the firm announced suspected fraud had delayed the publication of its financial results. Lookers’ share price dropped more than 18 per cent after it revealed last night that it had “identified potentially fraudulent transactions”. Lookers, which was scheduled to publish its 2019 results this morning, [...]
Iceland’s founding family mulls buying bigger stake March 10, 2020 Iceland’s founder could seek to regain ownership of the supermarket when South African investment company Brait sells its stake. Brait, which owns around 63 per cent of the frozen food specialist, said in November it plans to offload its stake in several British companies, including Iceland, in the next five years. It will also sell [...]
Asda cuts fuel prices after oil price spirals on coronavirus March 10, 2020 Supermarket Asda has cut the price of petrol and diesel amid the Russia-Saudi Arabia oil war. The supermarket has cut its price by 2p per litre (ppl), meaning petrol will cost 114.7p per litre and diesel will cost 116.7p per litre. Asda said they are its lowest fuel prices since November 2017. “It will be [...]
French Connection in the red after ‘worse than expected’ trading March 10, 2020 French Connection reported a loss last year after trading in the second half was “considerably worse than expected”. The figures The high street retailer this morning said it fell to a loss of £2.9m last year compared to profit of £800,000 in the comparative period. Group revenue fell 11.4 per cent to £119.9m due to [...]
Coronavirus: DFS warns of footfall drop as profit slumps March 10, 2020 Sofa retailer DFS warned that coronavirus has caused a slump in footfall at its showrooms as it reported a dive in profit at the end of last year. The figures Gross sales fell 5.8 per cent to £629.7m, and revenue fell 5.7 per cent to £488m in the 26 weeks ended 29 December. Profit before [...]
Bad weather and coronavirus fears hurt high street sales March 10, 2020 Bad weather and coronavirus fears kept UK shoppers away from the high street last month, while streaming services and takeaway firms benefited from Brits staying at home. Consumer spending was up 2.2 per cent year-on-year last month, driven by digital subscriptions and takeaways as Brits stayed home to avoid storms and coronavirus risks. More than [...]
Reforming business rates – is Land Value Tax really a viable alternative? March 9, 2020 | City Talk The Business Rates system has long been considered by businesses as outdated and in need of reform. It imposes its tax burden whether the business is “in the red or the black”, i.e. profitable or not. Also, whilst purported to be a tax on business collected by means of property, it has a distinct bias [...]