Labour’s tobacco bill risks empowering black market, warns shadow minister October 7, 2025 The Labour government’s proposed Tobacco and Vapes Bill could hand a significant boost to criminal gangs and fuel the growing black market in illicit goods across the UK, the shadow policing minister has warned. Matt Vickers MP has told City AM that the legislation, aimed at curbing smoking and youth vaping, fails to address the [...]
Is HMV making a comeback in the age of Spotify? | Boardroom Uncovered October 7, 2025 In the latest episode of Boardroom Uncovered, City AM’s UK Editor Jon Robinson sits down with Phil Halliday, Managing Director of HMV, to unpack the storied retailer’s unlikely resurgence. Once a cautionary tale of the high street’s decline, HMV has quietly engineered a turnaround, with Halliday at the helm steering Britain’s most famous music shop [...]
Jaguar Land Rover production to restart October 7, 2025 Manufacturing at Jaguar Land Rover will partially restart as soon as Wednesday, the firm has said, a month and a half after a crippling cyberattack forced the UK’s largest carmaker to halt its production line. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Tata Motors-owned car brand confirmed that a phased restart at two of its [...]
Tariffs and economic pressure drive slowdown at Aston Martin October 6, 2025 Aston Martin has blamed a combination of economic challenges and the ongoing impact of tariffs as it warned sales will fall year on year. The luxury carmaker delivered fewer cars than expected in the third quarter of 2025, at 1,430 wholesale units versus 1,641 in the third quarter of 2024. It attributed the fall to [...]
Oxford Street pedestrianisation boosts sales, survey finds October 6, 2025 The pedestrianisation of Oxford Street led to higher sales at the majority of stores on the busy high street, a new survey has found, with business chiefs praising efforts to make traffic-free days more frequent. Oxford Street was closed to traffic for eight hours on Sunday 21st September in a pilot test for further plans [...]
Beauty Tech makes strong debut on London Stock Exchange amid IPO drought October 3, 2025 Shares in Beauty Tech Group, the owner of at-home skincare device brands including CurrentBody, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser, rose on their first day of trading in London, offering a rare boost to the capital’s beleaguered stock market. The Cheshire-based firm priced its initial public offering (IPO) at 271p a share, giving it a market [...]
Red Bull sales spike ahead of England ban October 3, 2025 Sales of Red Bull have spiked ahead of a planned new law in England to ban energy drinks being sold to under 16s. The giant has reported a UK revenue of £668.3m for 2024, up from the £594.1m it achieved in 2023. New accounts filed with Companies House also show that its pre-tax profit rose [...]
‘Subdued’ services sector suffers steep drop as tax hikes bite October 3, 2025 Business activity expansion fell to a five-month low after a “subdued” services sector experienced a dull end to the third quarter. S&P’s UK Services Purchasing Managers Index Business Activity tumbled to 50.8 in September, falling steeply from the 16-month high of 54.2 secured in August. “This summer’s acceleration in output growth is now looking like [...]
Tesco boss warns Reeves that ‘enough’s enough’ ahead of Budget October 2, 2025 Tesco boss Ken Murphy has warned Rachel Reeves that business will struggle to absorb more costs as fears rise of another tax raid in this Budget. UK retailers were hit by higher labour costs after an increase in the minimum wage and employer’s national insurance costs this April, after changes made at last October’s budget [...]
Farmfoods: Iceland rival battles rising costs September 30, 2025 Budget supermarket chain Farmfoods has said rising costs weighed on its profit as it battled to keep prices down for its customers. The business, which is headquartered in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, has posted a pre-tax profit of £33.1m for 2024, up from the £25.5m it achieved in 2023. However, Farmfoods said “increased cost pressures” resulted [...]