Marks & Spencer is to shut 32 more stores as it shifts away from town centres, saying many have “lost impetus” as a result of failed local authority or government policy. The high street bellwether said profits will flatline in the year ahead amid “increasing cost pressures and consumer uncertainty”. A decision to fully exit […]
Women-owned businesses performed worse during the pandemic, according to new research by emlyon business school published in the journal of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice The study, conducted by Addis G. Birnhanu and her co-authors, investigated the implications of the pandemic on gender differences in business performance. They found that women-owned businesses performed worse than their […]
The government borrowed £18.6 billion last month, £5.6 billion less than in April last year and below expectations. City economists had forecast borrowing of £18.8 billion and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s estimate was for £19.1 billion. However, it is the still the fourth highest borrowing for the month since records began in 1993. The […]
The head of the Trades Union Congress has written to the Insolvency Service calling for it to disqualify the directors of P&O Ferries after they sacked nearly 800 crew without notice. In a letter seen by the Guardian, Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said the Insolvency Service should “initiate disqualification proceedings against the directors […]
The UK’s data watchdog has fined a facial recognition company £7.5m for collecting images of people from social media platforms and the web to add to a global database. US-based Clearview AI has also been ordered to delete the data of UK residents from its systems by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Clearview has collected […]
Greeting card giant Moonpig has announced the proposed acquisition of Buyagift, the gift experiences platform, for £124m. The acquisition accelerates Moonpig’s strategy of becoming a leader in the gifting market, and gives them entry into the £6bn experiences segment. Buyagift is the UK’s leading gift experiences platform with the number one and number three brands […]
The prices of parcels and stamps are likely to rise again as Royal Mail tries to cover higher costs, including wages, energy and fuel expenses. The firm said it would try to “mitigate” the costs through “price increases and growth initiatives”. Earlier this year, the firm hiked first class stamp prices by 10p to 95p […]
UK digital lender Atom Bank is eyeing up a listing in New York in what will be a major blow to London’s efforts to promote itself as a premier destination for tech IPOs. Durham-headquartered Atom, founded in 2013 by Mark Mullen, is set to float in New York via a £700m merger with a special […]
The system of executive pay is “broken”, the Church of England’s pension board has said, as it challenged more companies to ease the pain of soaring inflation by committing to paying workers the living wage. On the day retailer Next approved a 50% pay rise for its chief executive, Adam Matthews, the Church’s chief responsible […]
A country pub has received a framed apology from a fashion publishing giant after being threatened with legal action unless the landlords changed its name. The Star Inn at Vogue was sent a cease-and-desist letter by Vogue’s publisher, Condé Nast, which claimed a link between the two businesses was “likely to be inferred”. The pub […]