Coca-Cola Co revenue exceeds estimations after soft drink price hikes February 10, 2022 Beverage giant Coca-Cola Co’s quarterly revenue has surpassed estimates, thanks to higher prices for soft drinks. The soft drink maker also credited the easing of Covid restrictions as theatres and restaurants reopened, boosting sales. It said adjusted revenue hit $9.47bn in the fourth quarter ended 31 December, from $8.60bn a year earlier. Analysts had expected [...]
Redrow increases profit as order book hits £1.5bn February 10, 2022 Redrow, one of the UK’s largest house builders, has reported a 16.6 per cent increase in profit as the order book hit £1.5bn. In the 27 weeks to 2 January, the FTSE-250 group registered a record revenue of £1.052bn, with operating margins returning to normalised levels of around 19.5 per cent, one year ahead of [...]
Unilever rules out any major acquisitions this year after failed £50bn GlaxoSmithKline deal February 10, 2022 Unilever said this morning the consumer giant saw a 4.5 per cent jump in sales for the past year as it was boosted by higher prices. The company, which makes products ranging from Marmite to Ben & Jerrys ice cream, said this was its fastest growth in nine years, driven by a 2.9 per cent [...]
SMEs need support February 10, 2022 Since April 2020, as the pandemic started to truly bite, we’ve been getting regular feedback from our UK members about the financial outlook of their SME clients through our monthly ACCA UK and Corporate Finance Network SME Recovery Tracker. The data provides an insightful picture of the ups and downs for SMEs. We’ve seen how [...]
Bailey’s wage dilemma is real, but the Bank has dragged its feet on inflation February 10, 2022 It is often argued the signal central banks’ bond buying programmes send to markets is more effective at shaping financial conditions than the purchases themselves. It is all about influencing expectations by sending the message that monetary policy will stay loose. Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey’s message to workers to temper pay [...]
Inflation crunch to intensify as wave of firms hike prices to survive cost assault February 10, 2022 A cost assault is forcing businesses to hike prices to protect margins in a sign the UK cost of living crisis is set to get worse before it gets better, reveals a new study published today. Around three in four firms are raising prices to weather soaring energy and staffing costs in what is being [...]
Persistent labour crunch intensifies pay pressures in sign of sticky inflation February 10, 2022 A shallower pool of available workers and growing calls among staff for employers to lift pay to offset the cost of living crunch is stoking wage tension in the jobs market, reveals fresh figures released today. Intensifying pay pressures in the jobs markets adds to the growing body of evidence indicating historically high inflation could [...]
ONS: Number of UK ‘high growth’ firms has fallen by 15 per cent since 2014 February 9, 2022 The number of UK firms considered to be “high growth” job creators has plummeted by 15 per cent between 2014 and 2020, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figures, compiled by Labour, showed that 14,190 firms were considered to be high growth at the end of 2014 and that this [...]
Bank of England chief wonk backs ‘steady handed’ approach to rate hikes February 9, 2022 The chief wonk at the Bank of England today backed a “steady handed” approach to rate hikes despite a projected more than seven per cent inflation peak. Huw Pill, the Bank’s chief economist and successor to Andy Haldane, said the Bank needs to hold fire on pursuing an “activist” approach to tightening monetary policy. Pill’s [...]
Hunting for “10 baggers” – how the UK beat the US February 9, 2022 The ups and downs of US technology stocks dominate headlines. Before this year’s tech correction it would have been hard to miss the news, for instance, that Apple’s market capitalisation had exceeded $3 trillion. That was not too far short of the entire value of the UK stock market. What is less well known, however, [...]