AI fraud surge squeezes UK retail margins as businesses fight back with tech October 13, 2025 UK retailers are under siege from a surge in AI-driven fraud, eroding thin profit margins and forcing a scramble for smarter defences. As economic headwinds bite, fraud losses are climbing, with businesses from high street giants to e-commerce heavyweights investing heavily in technology to stay afloat. Michael Reitblat, chief executive of fraud prevention specialist Forter, [...]
British icon in the red after Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes costs jobs October 10, 2025 John Smedley, the historic family-owned luxury knitwear brand, has been forced to raise prices and make redundancies as it battles Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes as it fell into the red. The Derbyshire-headquartered business can trace its roots back to 1784 and is currently run by the eighth generation of the Smedley family. Executive chairman [...]
Tax fears heat up as firms ‘not ready for another Budget battering’ October 10, 2025 Tax fears across businesses in the UK are bubbling up, a leading survey has indicated, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves is warned that firms are “not ready for another Budget battering” later this year. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC)’s survey has shown that business confidence remains in a fragile state amid nerves that another damaging [...]
Del Boy billionaire’s empire returns to profit after rescue deals October 9, 2025 The retail empire owned by the so-called ‘Del Boy billionaire’ and behind The Range and Wilko, returned to the black before rescuing the Homebase brand, it has been revealed. Chris Dawson’s Norton Group Holdings has reported a pre-tax profit of £10.5m for the year to 2 February, 2025, new accounts filed with Companies House show. [...]
Topshop and Topman losses revealed before John Lewis move October 7, 2025 Losses at the joint venture behind Topshop and Topman have been revealed ahead of the brand’s return to UK stores next year. The brands were sold by online clothing retailer Asos to a joint venture alongside Danish retail tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen’s Heartland in September 2024. Asos had previously acquired Topshop and Topman along with [...]
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 [...]