High street redundancies: Which retailers have cut jobs in the pandemic so far? February 13, 2021 Thousands of high street jobs have evaporated during the coronavirus pandemic, as retail chains have fallen under the pressure of lockdown restrictions on trading. The UK high street, which was already struggling before the pandemic, is set to look very different when shoppers return after lockdown following high profile collapses that have cost many retail [...]
Government should rethink rates holiday as economy kicks back into life February 1, 2021 John Webber is Head of Business Rates at Colliers International News that John Lewis is under pressure to hand back millions of pounds in business rates relief received in this year’s retail rates holiday shows that the Government must re-think the way it uses the rates system to hand out support to businesses.. Last year [...]
Insurers need to capture the Covid-19 zeitgeist and go beyond expectations January 21, 2021 As a communications professional, you rarely want your client and the words “the Supreme Court” to appear in the same sentence. However, last week, the justices issued a 112-page judgement on the Financial Conduct Authority’s appeal asking for “clarification” on whether insurance companies were required to pay business interruption claims for companies which had been [...]
Brits put Dry January on ice as alcohol sales boom in first week of latest lockdown January 13, 2021 Brits have seemingly given up on Dry January this year as supermarket alcohol sales have soared in the first week of lockdown. The month-long stint of alcohol abstinence has been put on hold for many people, according to the latest Waitrose sales figures. The grocer said wine sales are up 27 per cent and beer [...]
John Lewis suspends click and collect service to discourage non-essential travel January 12, 2021 John Lewis has suspended its click and collect service in a bid to prevent unnecessary travel during the coronavirus lockdown. The department store chain said this afternoon that the service will not accept any new orders from the end of the day. It said it is “conscious of the increased need to remove reasons for [...]
UK supermarkets bring in security to enforce mask wearing as Covid cases rise January 12, 2021 Supermarkets are ramping up Covid safety measures, with many of the major UK grocers planning to make masks mandatory and to only allow one person per household in store. Tesco, Waitrose and Asda have joined Sainsbury’s and Morrisons in announcing that customers without masks will be turned away, unless they are exempt for medical reasons. [...]
Deliveroo to roll out to 100 new towns and cities in 2021 January 12, 2021 Deliveroo will expand its service to 100 new towns and cities across the UK in 2021, following increased demand for business in 2020. The towns and cities earmarked for expansion include Yeovil, Bangor (Northern Ireland), East Kilbride, King’s Lynn, Scarborough, Llanelli and Exmouth. The move will mean the takeaway delivery app is available to 4 [...]
Beat Dry January with booze-free alternatives, from fizzy tea to CBD January 6, 2021 Despite this being the most miserable January in living memory (™), droves of us are keen to give up even more of life’s basic pleasures. This is set to be the most widely-practiced Dry January yet, with various unscientific surveys claiming that anywhere between 6.5m UK adults (up from 3.9m last year) to half of [...]
Why now is the time to stand up for British farming December 22, 2020 The farming sector has been challenged. Huge surges in demand at the peak of the pandemic for products such as minced beef (to account for the rise in batch cooking) have been matched by extremely low demand for more premium cuts usually reserved by restaurants, impacting the value farmers received for their livestock. Read more: [...]
John Lewis and Waitrose launch in-store Covid testing December 18, 2020 John Lewis is set to launch rapid Covid testing sites in select Waitrose and retail shops around the country in a bid to ensure its 16,000 staff are fit for work. Coronavirus testing will now be available at 40 partnership locations in England, including Waitrose and John Lewis supply chain sites, customer fulfilment centres, textiles [...]