Bother: The startup looking to disrupt the grocery market October 30, 2020 The days of empty shelves and loo roll shortages seem a distant lockdown memory, but one London-based startup thinks it speaks to a wider problem within the UK’s grocery market. Startup Bother is on a mission to disrupt the saturated grocery market by offering what it considers to be a convenient and cheaper online alternative. [...]
Don’t panic: Verbier will open its slopes today October 30, 2020 This may have been among the worst years in living memory, but at least Verbs is open for business. The famous Verbier ski-resort, the slopes of choice for City bankers and Sloane Rangers alike, will open today, despite surging Swiss Covid cases. This, coupled with today’s news that UK travellers will no longer have to [...]
Scrapping the VAT refund for tourists would be catastrophic for the UK economy October 30, 2020 Retail, hospitality and tourism are three of the sectors that have been hardest hit by Covid-19 and the ongoing lockdown restrictions. Employing close to six million people, job losses in these sectors are expected to be devastating. The government should be doing all it can to support these businesses at this critical time. Instead, it [...]
Corona Impact Series: A vegan stop off Oxford Street October 29, 2020 In this series, City PM looks at the financial and economic impact of the ongoing pandemic on a range of small and medium-sized businesses across London. Today: how evaporated demand and high rent obligations ultimately proved fatal for Ethos. Meat-free and plant-based Ethos opened six years ago, catering for vegans by offering ‘deliciously different’ meat-free and [...]
Could Germany have its quarantine free travel corridor revoked today? October 29, 2020 Germany looks likely to be taken off the UK’s quarantine-free travel corridor list this afternoon after its rate of coronavirus infection doubled in the last week. The surge in cases meant that Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday announced that Europe’s biggest economy would enter a four-week lockdown from 2 November. As a result, bars, restaurants, and [...]
Pret distances itself from founder Julian Metcalfe’s lockdown comments October 29, 2020 Pret a Manger has distanced itself from its founder Julian Metcalfe and criticised his opposition to a second coronavirus lockdown. Metcalfe, who also founded sushi chain Itsu, said young people would pay the economic price of the lockdown, saying it would only save the lives of a “a few thousand” old or vulnerable people. Pret [...]
AB InBev scraps dividend as home drinking pushes up costs October 29, 2020 AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, has scrapped its interim dividend as it announced this morning that quarterly profit dipped as the shift to drinking at home increased its costs. The firm, which owns Budweiser and Stella Artois, reported a surprise jump in sales as people drank more at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Overall [...]
London Tories slam Mayor Sadiq Khan over housing pledge and say he’ll miss home completion targets October 29, 2020 New figures reveal less than a third of the homes London's mayor started building in his first term have been completed.
Model railway brand Hornby returns to profit on lockdown boom October 29, 2020 Model railway company Hornby has returned to a profit for the first time in nearly a decade after an upsurge in interest for its products during lockdown. The group reported a 33 per cent increase in revenue to £21.1m in the first half of the year, up from £15.9m in 2019. And the Margate-based Hornby [...]
Death of the middleman? The myth of selling straight to the customer October 29, 2020 This pandemic has driven consumers online at a pace no one could predict, with Covid-19 forecast to generate an additional £4.5bn of UK online sales in 2020. Social distancing has set in motion a dramatic shift in how we shop — our business alone saw a more than 230 per cent growth rate in online [...]
