Landmark year: GSK beats quarterly expectations as it plans consumer healthcare spin off April 27, 2022 Healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline has reiterated its growth outlook after posting first quarter sales of £9.8bn, surpassing analysts’ expectations. The pharmaceutical firm said it anticipated it would deliver sales growth in 2022 of between five to seven per cent at CER and growth of adjusted operating profit of between 12 to 14 per cent at CER. [...]
WH Smith returns to profit and hopes to capitalise on travel comeback April 27, 2022 Stationery giant WH Smith has returned to profit and said it was set to reap the benefits of opening a number of new stores in airports as international travel rebounded. In interim results for the six months ended 28 February 2022, the high street named revealed headline profit before tax and non-underlying items hit £14m. [...]
Top investors pile pressure on food giants to ramp up health performance April 26, 2022 A group of investors representing £3tn in assets have called on some of the world’s top food producers to ramp up their performance on health.
PepsiCo swallows nearly $500m in charges after Russia invades Ukraine April 26, 2022 Beverage maker PepsiCo has taken a hit of nearly $500m in charges relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The soft drinks giant told investors on Tuesday that it had been forced to swallow $241m “brand portfolio impairment charges” and a separate $241m in “Russia-Ukraine conflict charges”. While the group suspended sales of soft drinks brands [...]
Boots sets mid-May deadline as owner seeks multi-billion sale April 26, 2022 Boots’ owner has set a deadline of 16 May for final offers for the chemist chain. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s (WBA) has issued the deadline to suitors as it seeks to sell the chain, Sky News has reported. Suitors expected to make final proposals include Asda and Apollo Global Management. However, India’s Reliance Industries was thought [...]
Loungers eyes profit ahead of market expectations after post-Omicron rebound in sales April 26, 2022 Bar operator Loungers now anticipates its yearly profit to be “slightly ahead” of market expectations, after a strong performance after Christmas. In a trading update for the year to 17 April, the firm said it “recovered strongly” after a period of “subdued” trading in December, due to the Omicron variant and related Covid measures. The [...]
Households face extra £271 on annual food bill as grocery inflation highest since 2011 April 26, 2022 Households are facing an additional £271 to their grocery bill, with price inflation now standing at the highest level in over a decade. According to fresh data from Kantar, grocery price inflation has reached 5.9 per cent, the highest level since December 2011. Brits are facing a slew of price increases this spring, as businesses [...]
Primark to introduce ‘selective’ price increases to offset pressures April 26, 2022 The owner of Primark has said it will be forced to raise prices on “selective” products in its autumn/winter ranges and issued a margin outlook warning. Associated British Foods (ABF) said its half-year sales and operating profit for the group returned to pre-Covid levels, in interim results for the 24 weeks ended 5 March 2022. [...]
Pandemic passport chaos: Millions put summer plans on hold amid ‘virtually unprecedented’ backlog to meet post-Brexit target April 26, 2022 A “virtually unprecedented” surge in applications for passports after the pandemic has put millions of people’s summer holiday plans in the balance. The country has been urged to get new applications in as “quickly as possible” to meet post-Brexit rules about passport validation, requiring at least three months remaining before being able to renew. This [...]
High street: Applications to convert shops to homes soar but councils reject almost half April 25, 2022 High street shop units are increasingly being targeted for conversion into homes, new data has revealed. Research by commercial law firm EMW found that the number of conversion applications leaped 37 per cent. Some 677 applications were made in 2020/2021, versus 494 in 2019/2020. However, out of the 677 applications for conversion, some 45 per [...]
