Shakespeare: Pret A Manger launches coffee subscription service September 9, 2020 On-the-go lunch seller Pret A Manger has made no secret of the difficult time it’s had as a result of thecoronavirus crisis. After lockdown, and as Britons continued to work from home and avoid city centres, it announced store closures and job losses after sales tumbled 74% year-on-year. In order for the business to survive [...]
British companies planned 300,000 redundancies in June and July September 8, 2020 UK employers planned more than 300,000 redundancies this summer as the coronavirus pandemic continued to take its toll on the economy. Figures obtained by a BBC Freedom of Information request show 1,784 firms made plans to cut nearly 150,000 jobs in July, a near sevenfold increase on the year before. While in June, 1,888 employers [...]
Two City professional bodies to share Walkie Talkie office space in home working drive September 8, 2020 Two of the City’s biggest financial services professional bodies will share an office in the Walkie Talkie as they seek to downsize their property footprints as part of a home working drive following the coronavirus lockdown. The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) will share a floor at [...]
Deutsche Bank asks 20 per cent of staff to return to London office September 7, 2020 Deutsche Bank is the latest City firm to ask employees to return to the office, as it invites some of its London-based staff back to its headquarters. The German bank has asked around 20 per cent of its employees to come back to its Great Winchester Street headquarters this week, according to Financial News. This [...]
Central London footfall jumps as office workers start to return September 7, 2020 Retail footfall in central London jumped last week as workers began returning to the office, in a sign of hope for struggling businesses in the capital, the latest research showed. Footfall increased 4.1 per cent across inner London high streets compared to the previous week as firms began to welcome employees back to the office. [...]
Home working could cost UK economy £15bn a year, PwC warns September 6, 2020 Home working could cost the UK economy up to £15.3bn a year due to the knock-on effect on office cleaners and security guards as well as nearby cafes and coffee shops. The latest research by accountancy firm PwC showed that the one per cent drop in GDP would be caused by a cut in spending [...]
Pret a Manger boss says shift to home working will become permanent September 4, 2020 The boss of sandwich chain Pret a Manger said the shift towards home working during the coronavirus pandemic will become permanent. Pano Christou, who was appointed chief executive in September last year, said workers will come into the office less often than they did before the Covid-19 crisis. Christou said Pret needs to adapt to [...]
Pret a Manger launches coffee subscription to battle lockdown sales slump September 4, 2020 Pret a Manger has announced it will launch a coffee subscription service as the coronavirus pandemic continues to challenge the cafe chain’s business model. Pret, which has announced 2,300 job cuts due to the Covid-19 crisis, said the £20-per-month subscription is the first step in its “new digitally-led, multichannel strategy”. The initiative, which will launch [...]
Can office workers save the day for local businesses ravaged by Covid-19? September 2, 2020 The sudden shift to remote working put in place by the majority of UK businesses may herald the end of the office, at least as we know it. Five months and multiple government campaigns later, and the shift to the kitchen table continues, seemingly unabated. According to a survey from US bank Morgan Stanley, just [...]
BP to sell London headquarters as work patterns shift August 30, 2020 BP is reportedly planning to sell its headquarters in central London, becoming the latest employer to signal a permanent shift in its working patterns. The oil giant employs 6,500 staff across its offices in the capital and in Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey. It plans to rent back the building from the new owner for up to [...]