Loss widens at Shangri-La Hotel at The Shard November 28, 2024 The five-star Shangri-La Hotel at The Shard is eyeing an improvement in its financial performance in 2024 despite its pre-tax loss widening during its latest year. The hotel has reported a pre-tax loss of £7.3m for 2023, according to newly-filed accounts with Companies House. The figure compares to the £6m pre-tax loss it posted in [...]
Tesco Clubcard and Sainbury’s Nectar schemes do help consumers, regulator says November 27, 2024 A year-long probe into UK supermarkets’ pricing practices has found “very little” evidence that shoppers are being treated unfairly with loyalty programmes such as the Tesco Clubcard scheme and Sainsbury’s Nectar points. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) probe, which has been ongoing since November last year, investigated whether supermarket loyalty schemes cause inflation by faking the [...]
The Notebook: T’is the season of goodwill and charity. Here’s how to make yours count November 27, 2024 Christmas is when most of us become our most charitable, but here's how to make your goodwill actually count, writes James Reed.
CBI chief: Ministers must ‘co-design’ economic growth with businesses post-Budget November 25, 2024 Businesses should have a stronger voice in setting economic growth policies, the boss of an influential business lobby group has urged, including a shift from “consultation to co-design”. Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), told attendees at the group’s annual conference that the government and firms share a “vision of [...]
How Tiktok is driving Brits to spend local instead of luxury this golden quarter November 22, 2024 Black Friday is known for being the one of the few days of the year when budget-conscious shoppers can flock to their favourite online retailer or high street shop and not feel (too) guilty with the price of their purchases. High-priced, big-name brands have traditionally taken the lead in terms of ringing in the festive [...]
Ofgem: Energy price cap to rise by £21 to £1,738 a year on average November 22, 2024 The UK’s energy price cap is set to rise by £21 for an average household, taking a standard yearly bill to £1,738, Ofgem has said. The energy regulator opted to announce a 1.2 per cent hike in the cap for the period January to March 2025 – or £1.75 a month, on average. It sets [...]
Mark Kleinman: Handbags (and more) at dawn for activist Ashley November 21, 2024 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and is the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column. This week he tackles Mike Ashley’s newfound penchant for activist investing, Homebase’s turnaround and and Burberry’s flip-flopping Handbags (and more) at dawn for activist Ashley Paul Singer, Bill Ackman…and Mike Ashley? On the list [...]
Bloom & Wild: Loyal customers help slash loss amid cost-cutting drive November 20, 2024 Bloom & Wild slashed its post-tax loss by more than 95 per cent as its focus on retaining existing customers and cutting costs started to pay off. The London-headquartered business, which which sends bouquets of flowers in boxes that can fit through a letter box, increased its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and [...]
Ofgem tells E.ON Next to pay up over prepayment meter failings November 20, 2024 The energy regulator Ofgem has told provider E.ON Next to pay up £14.5m for failing to provide final bills and refunds to its customers. E.ON failed to provide customers energy bills or give them back money owed on credit balances for prepayment meters. This comes after an investigation by Ofgem found that nearly 250k prepayment [...]
Starmer’s war on farmers will end in tears November 20, 2024 Farmers are busy people, often completely immersed in a lifestyle and a sector that demands their total attention and dedication. They kept going throughout the pandemic. They’ve been untroubled by the great working-from-home debate. They’ve put up with policy changes, regulatory reform, subsidy reform, Brexit checks, weather events, supply chain disruption, Whitehall bureaucracy, rising costs [...]