BRC chief: Red tape ‘weighs heavily’ on retailers Retail Helen Dickinson, the boss of leading trade body the British Retail Consortium, believes red tape “weighs heavily” on retailers. She speaks to Felix Armstrong about food inflation, workers’ rights and her meeting with the Chancellor. Helen Dickinson was six weeks into her job as chief executive of the BRC when the horsemeat scandal landed on [...]
Fevertree takes Environment Agency to court over green packaging tax Retail Fevertree has launched a legal challenge against the Environment Agency over its application of a sustainability packaging tax, which is charged on glass bottles. The premium drink mixer brand claims the glass used in some of its products should be classified as non-household packaging and be exempted from the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) levy, and [...]
John Lewis reinstates staff bonus but remains ‘cautious’ Retail John Lewis has returned its staff bonus after years of its suspension, as the retail titan turned a profit but remains “cautious” in a testing retail environment. The partnership, which also owns Waitrose, made a £134m profit in the year to January 2025, up six per cent from the year before, and notched growing sales [...]
‘Packaging tax’ to force further price rises October 1, 2025 UK businesses will be forced to pass the vast majority of costs incurred by a new packaging tax onto consumers, in a move that will stoke already rampant food inflation and compound financial pressures on hard-pressed households. According to fresh figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), retailers plan to pass over 80 per cent [...]
‘It’s existential’: Unpacking a looming tax scarier than the National Insurance hike April 13, 2025 For William Fugard, chief executive and co-founder of Gusto Organic, headaches caused by issues beyond his control are an occupational hazard. The terms on which the UK decided to leave the European Union meant that – in 2019 – the cost of exporting a pallet of his firm’s premium soft drinks went from £70 to [...]