Budget could destroy seventh-generation pub giant, warns boss November 18, 2024 The changes announced in the Budget represent an ‘existential threat’ to the future of a seventh-generation pub and brewing giant, its owner has warned. William Lees-Jones, who owns and runs Manchester-based JW Lees, which has produced real ale since 1828, has warned he is now “facing the very real prospect that we will never be able to [...]
How Arla Foods boss went from selling cigarettes to Lurpak and Cravendale November 15, 2024 A globe-trotting career that began selling cigarettes at British American Tobacco and has led to heading up the UK arm of dairy giant Arla Foods is maybe not what Bas Padberg could have predicted when he started out in the early 1990s. The managing director of the group behind Lurpak, Cravendale, Skyr and B.O.B milk [...]
Firms blame Budget uncertainty as economy slows sharply in third quarter November 15, 2024 The UK grew at a slower pace than expected in the third quarter, according to new figures, with business groups pointing to the impact of uncertainty ahead of last month’s Budget. New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the economy grew 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, after contracting 0.1 [...]
London pubs giant Young’s issues Budget warning after £11m costs hike November 14, 2024 Pub giant Young’s, which has locations across London and the South East, has insisted it has no plans to increase the price of drinks despite the Budget adding around £11m in annual costs. The listed group said it was instead focusing on increasing efficiency, better use of technology and internal investment in order to deal [...]
‘Disaster Budget will kill UK farming’, warns chicken king Boparan November 12, 2024 Entrepreneur Ranjit Singh Boparan, whose empire ranges from Bernard Matthews to Carluccio’s, has warned the autumn Budget is a “disaster for business” and will “deliver a final fatal blow to the thousands of small family-owned farms”. Boparan added that the “inheritance tax raid” on farms announced in the Budget on 30 October “risks supply being [...]
Employer National Insurance hike a ‘significant burden’ and will impact working people, warns Thwaites November 12, 2024 The hike in employer National Insurance contribution (NICs), which was revealed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Budget, will place a “significant burden” on historic brewer, pub and hotel owner, Daniel Thwaites, the company has said. The Lancashire-headquartered group added that the increase, together with the rise in the National Living Wage, “make it less [...]
Serco: FTSE 250 firm predicts £20m hit from Budget tax changes November 8, 2024 British outsourcing giant Serco stressed the tax changes in the UK following the Budget will increase cost by £20m per year
UK farms could shrink ‘like Russian dolls’ amid tax row, government warned November 7, 2024 The UK’s farms could be set to shrink “like Russian dolls”, the government has been warned, thanks to Labour’s inheritance tax changes announced in the Budget. Shadow business secretary – and former City minister – Andrew Griffith has cautioned that the policy could mean “like Russian dolls, with each generation that passes, you end up [...]
Ed Warner: Chair the football regulator? No thanks, not even for £130k November 7, 2024 The job ad for the chair is being circulated widely by opponents of the concept of a regulator in the hope that a moderate rather than a zealot will land the role.
No10 warned over risk of ‘killing off’ family-run firms November 4, 2024 Downing Street is attempting to weather a storm whipped up by entrepreneur James Dyson over changes to the inheritance tax treatment of family-run businesses. In an article in the Times, Dyson accused the government of “killing off family businesses, individual aspiration and economic growth” with their approach to death duties in the Budget. The high-profile [...]