Safestore ups earnings guidance and outlines London expansion May 10, 2021 Storage firm Safestore is expanding its London presence and has upped its full-year earnings guidance after boosting revenue in the pandemic. The FTSE 250 company will open two new London sites and expand two existing storage warehouses, it said. The sites will be in Lea Bridge, Morden, Bermondsey and a location in north east London. [...]
UK house prices hit new record high after growing at fastest rate in five years May 10, 2021 UK house prices grew at the fastest pace in five years last month as the stamp duty holiday continued to buoy the market. Average house prices in April reached a new record high of £258,204, an annual increase of 8.2 per cent and a monthly rise of 1.4 per cent. Almost £20,000 has been added [...]
Hotel Chocolat to return furlough money after Easter and Mother’s Day sales beat pre-Covid levels May 10, 2021 Hotel Chocolat has pledged to return furlough money to the government after sales soared despite the closure of the British chocolatier’s stores during lockdown. The firm said this morning that revenue for the eight weeks ended 25 April- which included Mother’s Day and Easter – was 19 per cent higher than the comparable period in [...]
Greggs predicts profit to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels as restrictions lift May 10, 2021 Bakery chain Greggs this morning said profit for the year is expected to beat expectations and return to pre-pandemic levels, as long as no further Covid restrictions are implemented. The firm said sales had recovered well in recent weeks as the “stay at home” order was eased, buoyed by a lack of competition from cafes [...]
EU looking into reports of rare nerve disorder after Astrazeneca vaccine May 8, 2021 The EU’s medicines regulator is investigating reports of a rare nerve-degenerating disorder in people who have received Astrazeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, it announced this afternoon. The watchdog has requested more detailed data on the cases from the company. As part of a regular review of safety reports for the vaccine, Vaxzevria, the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) safety [...]
Asda trials delivering food orders while customers are out in bid to sustain online shopping momentum May 7, 2021 Asda is trialling delivering unattended food orders, allowing drivers to drop off customers’ shopping when no one is home. The trial allows shopping to be delivered within a four-hour window when the customer is out by dropping it into boxes fixed outside the shopper’s home. It comes as supermarkets aim to sustain the momentum in [...]
Exclusive: Business group urges government to launch Covid bonds in ‘war-style’ recovery plan May 7, 2021 The government should issue Covid recovery bonds to finance the UK’s “war-style” post-pandemic recovery, according to family business organisation the Independent Business Network. The business group, which represents family owned or run firms across the country, said the government should abandon inflationary Quantitative Easing and introduce the bonds instead. In a letter to the Prime [...]
Ex-John Lewis MD to lead Sainsbury’s £7.8bn clothing and homewares unit May 6, 2021 Former John Lewis managing director Paula Nickolds has joined Sainsbury’s to lead the supermarket’s general merchandise and clothing business. Nickolds left John Lewis in January last year, after 25 years with the firm, as the department store chain issued a profit warning. She had been set to become executive director of brand and marketing as [...]
Shopper numbers surge as stores reopen but retail footfall lags behind pre-pandemic levels May 6, 2021 The number of shoppers visiting UK retail destinations surged last month as non-essential stores were able to reopen for the first time in months. However, despite the spike caused by the lifting of lockdown restrictions, retail footfall in April remained 32.7 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. It was an improvement from the [...]
Issa brothers offer to sell 27 petrol stations to resolve Asda takeover competition dispute May 5, 2021 The Issa brothers, the billionaire businessmen who recently bought Asda, have agreed to sell 27 of their EG Group petrol stations to resolve a competition dispute related to the takeover. Last month the Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into the Issa brothers and TDR Capital’s takeover of the supermarket, saying the deal raises [...]
