City Moves: Who is switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? April 14, 2021 Snakes and Ladders provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. John Lewis hires ex-Experian lead John Lewis has appointed a new director of financial services in London this week, who will step into the new role on 14 June. Amir Goshtai, who joins [...]
Government to offer free home Covid tests for businesses in back to work push March 28, 2021 The government is set to offer businesses free home test kits for employees, in a bid to get staff back to the workplace after almost a year of home working. In a major expansion of the government’s workplace testing scheme, all businesses with more than 10 employees who cannot offer on-site testing will be eligible [...]
John Lewis to permanently close eight stores, putting 1,465 jobs at risk March 24, 2021 John Lewis has announced it will not reopen eight stores after lockdown restrictions are eased, putting almost 1,500 jobs at risk. The retailer said the four department stores and four “At Home” branches are in locations that “can’t sustain a large store”, and will be permanently closed. It will enter into consultation with the 1,465 [...]
Ocado CEO Tim Steiner: M&S products are more popular than Waitrose March 18, 2021 Ocado’s M&S products are favoured over the former Waitrose partnership products with customers, as the company enjoys a doubling of new registrations, the company’s chief executive said this morning. “The M&S product is more popular with our customers than the Waitrose products were,” chief executive Tim Steiner said during an investor call earlier this morning. [...]
Dija acquires Genie in bid to expand 10-minute delivery service March 17, 2021 London-based grocery delivery startup Dija has acquired Cambridge startup Genie as it expands its service across the UK. Dija, which was founded by former Deliveroo executives, launched earlier this month and promises to deliver groceries within 10 minutes. It is the latest player to join the ever-expanding food delivery space and already has four warehouse [...]
Boris Johnson’s plan to tackle obesity must be backed by behavioural science March 15, 2021 The last 12 months have revealed clear links between obesity and Covid-19. As the Government pledges £100m to tackle this next great health challenge, what will it take to reduce our national waistline for life – not just life after lockdown? This month, the Government unveiled a new incentives and rewards approach designed to tackle [...]
Stripe tops US startup rankings as valuation jumps to $95bn March 15, 2021 Digital payments firm Stripe has become the most valuable private company in Silicon Valley after fresh funding drove up its price tag to $95bn (£68bn). The financial services firm last night announced it had raised $600m in fresh capital from investors including Allianz, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital, and Ireland’s National [...]
Nearly 50,000 businesses register for rapid Covid tests for staff to return to work March 13, 2021 Almost 50,000 businesses in the UK have registered to take part in the government’s free workplace testing programme, which will see rapid Covid tests used to return staff to the workplace. The health secretary welcomed the “fantastic” news. adding that it marked “a huge step forward in getting businesses back on their feet and helping [...]
Waitrose opens new London warehouse in online delivery push March 4, 2021 Waitrose has opened a new London warehouse in partnership with Wincanton in a bid to boost its online delivery capacity. The supermarket, which last year ended its partnership with Ocado, said the warehouse in Greenford will deliver 25,000 orders each week and employ an extra 800 staff when it opens fully later this year. That [...]
Lockdown leaders: Aldi and M&S voted UK’s top in-store supermarkets February 22, 2021 Lockdown leaders: Aldi and M&S voted UK’s top in-store supermarkets