Irn Bru owner AG Barr suffers revenue hit amid coronavirus crisis July 28, 2020 AG Barr, the maker of Irn Bru and Rubicon, warned this morning that full-year revenue will be down as much as 15 per cent due to trading volatility during the coronavirus crisis. The drinks manufacturer said revenue for the year ended January 2021 is expected to slump 12 per cent to 15 per cent compared [...]
Virgin Money reports dip in customer demand due to coronavirus July 28, 2020 Virgin Money has reported a dip in customer lending in the third quarter as demand for mortgages and personal loans fell due to the pandemic. However, the lender said it had not yet seen a spike in credit losses linked to coronavirus. The figures Virgin Money reported a 2.7 per cent drop in personal lending [...]
Video: Is Big Tech under threat? July 28, 2020 In this short video Sean Markowicz explains why the market dominance of big tech firms might prove to be a threat to their own future performance. While many businesses are struggling under the global lockdown, the largest technology companies are thriving. Firms such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook have all seen increased demand [...]
Surging Dettol demand amid pandemic pushes Reckitt Benckiser’s profit higher July 28, 2020 A surge in Dettol maker Reckitt Benckiser’s hygiene product sales helped the company post a sharp 14 per cent rise in operating profit for the pandemic-struck first half of 2020 today. The figures Operating profit rose 14 per cent year on year to £1.59bn, while profit before tax increased 13.9 per cent to £1.44bn. Revenue [...]
The City View: James Burstall on post-lockdown production July 28, 2020 Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS Today Andy Silvester is joined by James Burstall, the chief executive of TV and film production company Argonon Group, whose credits include The Masked Singer and a host of critically acclaimed documentaries. James talks about pivoting the business as Covid-19 hit, preparing for an extended period without being able [...]
An e-citizenship scheme would put the UK at the heart of global trade July 28, 2020 The global population of startups and entrepreneurs is on the rise. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, just 8.9 per cent of the world’s population was involved in some sort of startup business in 2001. By 2016, that figure was 14 per cent. In the most entrepreneurial countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, startups can employ [...]
DEBATE: Is the government right to focus on obesity as its top public health issue? July 28, 2020 Is the government right to focus on obesity as its top public health issue? Dr Keith Klintworth, managing director at VitalityHealth, says YES. The pandemic has made the case for action on obesity stronger than ever, with research showing that it is the second biggest risk factor for hospitalisation from Covid-19. Not only that, but [...]
Corruption in politics? It’s just business as usual July 28, 2020 Robert Wood Johnson IV is not a name which necessarily springs even to the more well-informed lips. “Woody”, as he is far better known, is the American ambassador to London — a post he assumed almost three years ago at the request of Donald Trump. His background is not in diplomacy: he is part of [...]
A property wealth tax is the only fair way to pay for the Covid-19 crisis July 28, 2020 Two years ago, the director of the Office for Budget Responsibility wrote the following: “Broadly speaking, the fiscal position is unsustainable if the public sector is on course to absorb an ever-growing share of national income… The baseline projection in each of our reports — since the first was published in 2011 — has pointed [...]
More than 60 per cent of London firms plan to lay off staff, survey says July 28, 2020 More than 60 per cent of London firms expect to lay off some of their furloughed employees, a survey has said, in a sign of the wave of unemployment that is to come. The Lloyds Bank business barometer found that just under one in five London firms who have used the scheme expect to bring [...]
