Young’s: Pub chain in ‘great shape’ after Christmas despite Budget burden January 16, 2025 Young & Co have reported an excellent Christmas trading period, with optimism abound despite a higher cost burden for the hospitality sector this year. The pubs-and-rooms operator, which has around 228 pubs and 5,600 employees, said that revenue in the five weeks to January 13 rose 30.4 per cent, with like-for-like sales up 11.6 per [...]
UK economy grows just 0.1 per cent following Budget January 16, 2025 Economic momentum has ground to a halt since Labour took office while business confidence has also fallen sharply, particularly in the wake of October's Budget.
The Debate: Will RTO mandates help or harm businesses? January 16, 2025 RTO mandates are riling up employees, but are businesses right to clamp down on working from home? Our writers hash it out in The Debate.
Vacancies back to pre-pandemic levels as UK jobs market slows January 16, 2025 The number of vacancies in the UK economy has fallen back in line with pre-pandemic levels, according to new figures from the REC.
Pub giants allay fears of hospitality crisis despite higher wage bills January 15, 2025 Pub giants Mitchells & Butlers and Fuller, Smith & Turner have both expressed confidence as the firms adapt to higher wage bills, in a positive sign for an industry which warned of crisis last year. Mitchells, the owner of Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One, reported like-for-like growth of 10.4 per cent over the [...]
Vistry: Housebuilder avoids fourth profit downgrade but warns of market uncertainty January 15, 2025 Vistry has warned of uncertain market conditions as it reaffirmed previously downgraded profit guidance for the year ahead. The UK’s largest housebuilder by output said the outcome of the government’s spending review and a “recovery in consumer confidence” would prove pivotal in determining performance in 2025. Group adjusted pre-tax profit is forecast to be around [...]
Demand for AI tech boosts Currys January 15, 2025 Electrical retailer Currys has reinstated its dividend after a jump in sales related to AI tech helped boost the firm’s top and bottom lines. In a trading update issued this morning, the FTSE 100 firm said it expected to record a profit for its 2024/25 financial year of £145m to £155m, up 23 per cent to [...]
Business confidence plunges to lowest level since Liz Truss’s mini-budget January 15, 2025 Rachel Reeves’s tax hikes have pushed business confidence to its lowest level since the wake of Liz Truss’s calamitous mini-Budget, as firms fret over a surge in costs and slowdown in the domestic economy, a closely watched survey has suggested. Concerns over a looming tax bill and a slump in sales caused business confidence to [...]
Most retailers will hike prices in response to Reeves’ NI Budget raid January 15, 2025 Two thirds of CFOs have said their business will be forced to raise prices as a result of higher wage bills, according to a new survey. Around 70 per cent of respondents to the survey, which looked at the attitudes of CFOs at 52 retailers, were “pessimistic” or “very pessimistic” about trading conditions over the [...]
‘Budget hasn’t worked’: Reeves defends China trip as Stride says Brits ‘deserve better’ January 14, 2025 Rachel Reeves has defended her trip to China amid economic turmoil in the UK as MPs argued her Budget “hasn’t worked” and insisted: “The British people deserve better.” The Chancellor appeared in the House of Commons for the first time since last week’s bond market shock threw her public spending plans and fiscal rules into [...]