Robust reopening for Dunelm as firm plans investment July 14, 2021 Homewares retailer Dunelm today reported strong growth as it bounced back from coronavirus retail restrictions, with profits slightly ahead of forecasts. Despite this outlook, shares in the Leicester-based company fell around 3 per cent this morning. Sales more than doubled in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2020, when the UK was [...]
City watchdog blasts Provident over compensation plans July 14, 2021 The City watchdog has hit out at Provident Financial over plans to cap compensation for customers of its failed doorstep lending arm, but said it would not oppose the lender in court. Provident has set aside £50m under a so-called scheme of arrangement to reimburse customers who were mis-sold loans by its home credit unit. [...]
Barratt expects higher profits as home completions increase July 14, 2021 Barratt expects profits to be at the “top end” of market expectations, it announced this morning, amid a boom in home completions. The housebuilder delivered 17,243 homes in the year ended 30 June 2021 – 5,000 more than the year before, according to the company’s trading update. Despite the pandemic Barratt built more homes than [...]
Baked goods group Finsbury Food knocked by Covid delays but still marked growth July 14, 2021 Baked goods group Finsbury Food has ended its financial year with raised revenues despite being struck by Covid-19 unlocking delays, bringing in some £313.3m in total revenue. The group’s results in the second half of the year faired slightly better, as consumers had more spending confidence as they eyed restrictions easing, with revenues up 9.1 [...]
Bosses blast ‘mixed messages’ as back-to-work rules delayed July 14, 2021 The bosses of some of Britain’s top businesses have hit out at the government as ministers delayed the publication of new rules on returning to the office. Officials at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy failed to set out guidance on best practice for employers and workers yesterday despite previously suggesting they would [...]
UK listed companies set for rebound after brutal pandemic hit July 14, 2021 UK listed companies saw a record decline over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, but recovery is already underway and predicted to rapidly pick up. Investment manager J O Hambro Capital Management today said the pandemic was deeper and more widespread than any other downturn in recent history. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic was [...]
Boris Johnson has sown dangerous ambiguity over Covid rules with mixed messaging for Freedom Day July 14, 2021 Sixty years ago, Daniel Ellsberg, as a graduate student at Harvard, wrote a now-seminal paper on behavioural economics. The conclusions of “Risk, ambiguity and the Savage axioms” pose a fundamental challenge to the conventional economic model of rational choice, as well as the Government’s current Covid strategy. Despite its seemingly esoteric nature, an experiment carried [...]
Workplace gender parity pushed back four years by Covid-19 pandemic July 14, 2021 UK workplaces are failing to make progress in gender diversity, with the Covid-19 pandemic pushing representation in executive positions back by four years. Diversity consultancy The Pipeline said career prospects for women were “desolate” in its annual assessment of gender diversity in FTSE 350 companies. The predicted year for gender parity in the UK was [...]
Podcast: CIO of PwC Canada on how the Big Four firm adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic July 14, 2021 Craig Brice CA, Chief Information Officer at PwC Canada, joins Indy from Toronto to discuss how the Big Four firm adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lasting effects the pandemic will have on technology and his predictions for key trends in emerging tech. Listen now on Spotify, Apple podcast, Soundcloud or the ICAS website. Craig started his career as a [...]
Go-Ahead to make all buses and trains net zero by 2035 July 14, 2021 Go Ahead Group will run all 5000 of its buses and all of its trains on electric or hydrogen power by 2035, the firm announced this morning. Under the new plan, the FTSE 250 firm will cut emissions from its operations 75 per cent by 2035, and to net zero by 2045, five years ahead [...]
