Travelodge turns to robot vacuums amid budget hotel chain facing £21m costs hike November 28, 2024 Travelodge has revealed it is facing a £21m hike in costs in 2025 following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget. The budget hotel group has warned it will see the increase because of the combined impact of another minimum wage hike in April as well as a higher rate of employer national insurance set to push up [...]
McVitie’s biscuits boss dunks on UK as investment destination November 25, 2024 The boss of the company behind biscuit giants McVitie’s, Jacobs and Carr’s has warned that the UK has become a less attractive place to invest. Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s annual conference on Monday, Salman Amin, the chief executive of Pladis, the firm behind the iconic brands, warned that Britain has become [...]
‘We’ve made our decisions’- Don’t expect Budget rethink, Reeves implies November 25, 2024 Rachel Reeves has implied she won’t rethink her Budget measures in the wake of backlash from business, saying: “We’ve made our decisions.” The Chancellor appeared at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s annual conference on Monday in a fireside chat with Keith Anderson, the chief executive of Scottish Power. She was asked by ITV about [...]
CBI chief: Ministers must ‘co-design’ economic growth with businesses post-Budget November 25, 2024 Businesses should have a stronger voice in setting economic growth policies, the boss of an influential business lobby group has urged, including a shift from “consultation to co-design”. Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), told attendees at the group’s annual conference that the government and firms share a “vision of [...]
Ahead of the Game: Lineker to score tax saving from company liquidation November 20, 2024 Goalhanger Films, which is co-owned by Lineker and former ITV controller Tony Pastor, has appointed a voluntary liquidator despite being a solvent company.
ECB chair Thompson: I’ve found myself in an extraordinary moment for cricket November 19, 2024 "A lot of the next 10 years will be determined almost by what happens in the next 10 weeks," said Thompson.
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 [...]