Royal Mail anticipates cost pressures while online shopping boom here to stay September 23, 2021 Royal Mail has warned of mounting cost pressures as it revealed growth in its parcels business has eased since Covid restrictions were removed. The group reported a nine per cent drop in parcel deliveries by volume across July and August, as parcel revenues fell 4.6 per cent to £773m. However, a trend towards online shopping [...]
Drax prepared to delay power plant closures September 23, 2021 Electricity company Drax could continue operating its power plants beyond their planned closure next year to aid energy supply. The firm – which runs a coal plant in North Yorkshire – has called generators back into action to help balance a grid experiencing tight supply. Prices of gas and electricity have hit record highs as [...]
Small energy suppliers Green and Avro cease trading after pleading for support September 22, 2021 Green and Avro have announced they are leaving the energy market and will cease trading. The announcement from Green came just one day after it was reported the firm had lined up insolvency advisers. The supplier said it was “exiting the market due to the government failing to provide any support to smaller energy suppliers,” [...]
Card payments made up four in every five pounds spent last year September 22, 2021 Debit or credit cards accounted for more than four in every five pounds spent in 2020, as the pandemic sped up cashless spending. Cashless payments made up 81 per cent of spending last year, a slight increase from 78 per cent in 2019, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). In its annual payments survey, [...]
Smoother sailing: Saga cruise bookings back to pre-Covid levels September 22, 2021 Holidays group Saga has reported smoother sailing with bookings for cruises in 2022 back to levels seen before Covid. The group – which caters to over-50s – said its current booked cruise load factors were at 70 per cent for 2021/22, following legal restrictions on capacity for early cruises. It posted tour operations bookings for [...]
PZ Cussons: Revenue ahead of pre-pandemic levels despite Covid comparatives September 22, 2021 Personal healthcare brand PZ Cussons said revenues were ahead of pre-pandemic levels despite an unprecedented demand for hygiene brands easing. The firm said it expected comparatives from the beginning of the Covid 19 outbreak to impact its year-on-year revenue comparisons in the first quarter of FY22, in a trading update published on Wednesday. Its two [...]
Ten Entertainment bowled over by most successful summer ever September 22, 2021 Family entertainment provider Ten Entertainment has marked record sales since it reopened after England’s third lockdown. The firm – which operates 46 bowling and family entertainment centres in the UK – said it had seen 22.5 per cent sales growth in the six weeks from May 17. Like-for-like sales in the 11 weeks since June [...]
Ryanair boss: EasyJet and WizzAir merger would be ‘sensible development’ September 22, 2021 Ryanair’s boss has doubled down on his point that rivals EasyJet and WizzAir will not survive as independent airlines without a merger. Chief executive Michael O’Leary said it would be a “sensible development,” for the airlines to merge in the future and there was industry-consensus there would be “more consolidation across Europe” post-Covid. “I’m not [...]
British Steel: 50-fold increase in power prices limiting daily operations September 22, 2021 The UK’s second-biggest steel producer said rising power prices had made it impossible to produce profitably at certain times of day. British Steel said there had been an up to 50-fold increase in quoted rates, with a maximum price at peak times of up to £2,500 per megawatt hour, compared with an average rate of [...]
Suburban takeover: Pret sets out plans for more than 200 new shops September 22, 2021 Sandwich chain Pret a Manger has announced plans to open more than 200 UK shops in the next two years, as it aims to become more than a “white collar worker’s staple”. The business hopes to double its size within five years, with a £100m net investment by JAB and Pret founder Sinclair Beecham to [...]
