Retailers struggle to rack in sales in June as shoppers continue to scale back July 7, 2023 Retailers continued to show signs of struggling in June, new figures show, as sales growth remained well below inflation due to customers scaling back their shopping habits due to the cost of living crisis. Total like-for-like sales in June grew 1.9 per cent from last year’s base of 8.4 per cent, according to figures from [...]
End of an era: Majority of jobs axed as TV shopping channel Ideal World collapses July 6, 2023 TV shopping channel Ideal World has hired administrators and made the “majority” of its workforce redundant. The Peterborough-based company employed around 275 people at its head office but hired insolvency experts from advisory firm Kroll on Wednesday after it was hit by weaker consumer spending habits. Administrators said overall trading was “not strong enough” for [...]
Explainer: Small house builders face existential hurdles July 6, 2023 As mortgages and rents rocket up, the housing industry hardly needed another blow. But small firms in the sector have warned they risk going bust without an intervention. In a letter to the prime minister this week, more than 200 small to medium-sized companies lamented that changes in the planning systems are blocking new developments [...]
Water companies will seek household bill rises says Ofwat boss July 5, 2023 Water companies are planning to increase prices further for households, according to industry regulator Ofwat.
The Notebook: Neil Bennett on Thames Water’s future, Iceland’s remarkable recovery and Twitter’s new rival July 5, 2023 The Notebook is where interesting people say interesting things. Today it’s Neil Bennett, global co-chief executive of advisory firm H/Advisors Where next for Thames Water? However big and powerful they appear, businesses are in reality fragile creatures. Many thousands of them fail every year for all sorts of reasons, and today’s behemoth is tomorrow’s insolvency [...]
Le Pain Quotidien operator crashes into administration with only one London store to survive July 3, 2023 A City hotspot for morning coffee, Le Pain Quotidien, has closed all but one of its sites across London, in another fatal blow for the city’s hospitality sector. The Belgian coffee chain, which operates from eight sites across the capital, including a cafe on Fish Street Hill in Monument, has closed all of its sites [...]
Retailer insolvencies jump to higher level than pandemic as brands buckle under economic pressure July 3, 2023 A squeeze on shoppers’ finances has increased the number of retailers being plunged into hot water, new research shows, as the cost of living crisis continues to decimate businesses. As inflation sits at a sticky 8.7 per cent, the number of retailers entering insolvency jumped 56 per cent in the past year, according to figures [...]
Lack of available finance hampering SMEs – and things aren’t getting better anytime soon June 29, 2023 Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are struggling to access funding as rising rates force banks to put up the costs of lending. According to YouGov data collected for AIM-listed Manx Financial Group, 40 per cent of SMEs had to stop or pause an area of their business due to a lack of funding over the [...]
Insolvencies set to rise amid ‘perfect storm’ of rising rates and slowing economy, Kroll’s global restructuring lead warns June 29, 2023 Insolvencies are likely to rise amid a “perfect storm” of rising interest rates, higher costs and a slowing economy. “All the indicators show that insolvencies will rise and I think that our message is that management teams need to be taking advice earlier and recognising the problem earlier,” Sarah Rayment, the new co-lead of global [...]
Insolvency fears for UK firms recede despite four-year high in May, new research shows June 27, 2023 Fears of insolvency are receding among UK firms despite recent data showing liquidations hit a four-year high in May. According to new research from Evelyn Partners, 32 per cent of UK businesses believe there is a risk they will become insolvent in the next 12 months, down significantly on the 47 per cent of firms [...]