Oxford Summer Courses wins Queen’s award for sustained international growth April 21, 2020 | Sponsored Oxford Summer Courses, a growing education provider founded by two Oxford graduates, has won an award for outstanding achievement in the International Trade category of this year’s Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. The awards recognise the commercial success of British companies in international trade as well as their commitment to corporate social responsibility. The Oxford-based firm [...]
Cru Wine getting the balance right with astute and nimble investments April 21, 2020 | Sponsored Very often timing is everything. That certainly proved the case for Gregory Swartberg when he started Cru Wine Ltd (CWL) in 2013, which he initially operated by himself around his full-time job as a strategic consultant for big names in the city. The 31-year-old Dutchman’s first employee came two years later, when he finally decided [...]
Outside the box hitting it out of the park April 21, 2020 | Sponsored Specialist marketing agency wins award for blue-chip international trade. It is easy to understand why Outside The Box (OTB Agency) have won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade, because they are a full-service specialist creative marketing agency that produces genuinely outstanding communications that continually raise the bar for their clients. Headquartered in Leeds, [...]
UK coronavirus death toll rises above 17,000 April 21, 2020 The UK’s coronavirus death toll has risen above 17,000 after a further 823 people were confirmed to have died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19. The Department of Health said this afternoon that the UK coronavirus death toll had risen to 17,337 by 5pm yesterday. As of 9am today, 535,342 tests have been carried [...]
US home sales slump in March as coronavirus bites April 21, 2020 US home sales tumbled at the fastest rate in over four years in March, figures have shown, as coronavirus containment measures choked off buyer demand in one of the biggest markets in the world. Existing home sales slumped 8.5 per cent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.27m units, the National Association [...]
Admiral shares up as insurer issues £110m refund to customers during lockdown April 21, 2020 Shares in Admiral jumped three per cent today after the insurer announced it will refund £110m to customers as the coronavirus lockdown has reduced the need for car travel. Admiral said this morning that there are fewer cars on the road, and therefore it expects to receive fewer insurance claims. The insurance company will refund [...]
Applications worth £1.5bn now made to coronavirus job retention scheme April 21, 2020 A further 45,000 businesses and 300,000 employees have registered for the government’s wage subsidy scheme, according to the Treasury. A Treasury spokesman said today that 185,000 businesses with 1.3m employees had applied for the job retention scheme as of midnight last night. The total amount this covers would be £1.5bn, however the spokesman said that [...]
Italy to relax lockdown restrictions from early May April 21, 2020 Italy will this week outline plans to lift its coronavirus lockdown, with some restrictions expected to be eased from 4 May. The country, which has been one of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has been under lockdown since 9 March. Italy’s lockdown has seen most businesses close and people only allowed out of [...]
Downing Street stands by 100,000 daily coronavirus tests target April 21, 2020 Downing Street has stood by its target of administering 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month, despite having capacity to carry out less than half of that. With just nine days left in the month, there is testing capacity to carry out just 39,250 tests a day. Just 19,316 tests were [...]
Richard Branson hits out as Virgin Australia goes into administration April 21, 2020 Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson has hit out at the Australian government after low-cost airline Virgin Australia went into administration this morning. In an open letter, Branson, whose Virgin group owns 10 per cent of the airline, wrote: “In most countries federal governments have stepped in, in this unprecedented crisis for aviation, to help their [...]