Category: Business

From festivals in Florida to touring Dracula’s digs in Romania, we round up the best destinations to visit this October. As summer abandons Europe again this October, eke out the last of the rays and raves in Ibiza, where nightclubs will be going out with a bang for the winter break. When the party finally stops head to the island’s north.

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Business

Ocado pays 5 pence per plastic bag returned by customers Business

Plastic bags from other chains will also be collected, but customers will only be reimbursed for returned Ocado bags.

Used bags are sent to a recycling plant where they are turned into granules used to make new bags.

The move comes as Ocado continues to benefit from virus-induced “stay at home” orders.

Last month, he reported that total sales had climbed by a third to £ 2.3 billion for the year through November. The company recorded pre-tax losses of £ 44million, up from £ 215million last year.

This strong retail performance was offset by increased investment in its robot warehouse technology business, as well as spending on hiring more staff and revamping its website to cope with the surge in demand.

Ocado shares fell 1.7 pc to £ 21.01 in the afternoon session, valuing the company at £ 15.7 billion.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-04 12:52:35

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Business

Unilever “ inclusive ” abandons the “ normal ” of beauty products Business

Unilever will ditch the word “normal” from its beauty products and tone down model photo editing in an effort to hone its diversity and inclusion credentials.

The FTSE 100 Company said its publishing ban would remove “all digital changes in body shape, size, proportion and skin color” from its advertisement, while the word “normal” at least 200 products will be phased out within a year.

The owner of personal care brand Dove said the move was part of the drive to create a “more inclusive definition of beauty.”

The reshuffle is the latest example of corporate giants abandoning long-standing labels and practices in an effort to appear more ethical to a new generation of consumers.

Sunny Jain, Head of Beauty and Personal Care Products at Unilever, said: “We know that removing the ‘normal’ from our products and packaging will not solve the problem on its own, but it is an important step forward. . “

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-09 13:00:17

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Business

Lego profits soar as parents seek solution for bored kids Business

An adult craze for Lego sets during the lockdown propelled the Danish toy manufacturer’s growth to a five-year high.

More and more adults are buying bigger and more complicated Lego sets in the middle of a hobby search as shops, pubs and restaurants are closed. One of the best selling items is a detailed Lamborghini car.

Online sales were also boosted as stores around the world were forced to close and parents sought to entertain children trapped at home.

Operating profits rose 19% to 12.9 billion Danish kroner (£ 1.5 billion) last year, while revenues climbed 13% to 43.7 billion kroner (5 billion pounds sterling). Consumer sales jumped by more than a fifth.

Lego has also been given a boost with its new Super Mario sets, which mix physical bricks with digital games.

The company plans to increase its investment in similar products this year, including the release of Vidiyo this month – a tie-up with Universal Music that allows kids to create their own music videos with special effects and filters.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-10 12:52:34

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Business

Royal Mail takes on Amazon with Sunday parcel deliveries Business

Royal Mail will launch Sunday parcel deliveries nationwide for the first time in its 500-year history in a bid to take on Amazon.

Packages will be delivered nationwide seven days a week starting next month, as the postal service responds to a surge in online shopping during the pandemic.

The Sunday parcel service will be made available to merchants so that customers can specifically request delivery on the last day of the week.

Nick Landon of Royal Mail said: “For the first time our postal workers will be doing the same thing seven days a week. The past year has reset so many customer expectations and the desire for even more convenient and frequent parcel deliveries is certainly one of them. “

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-12 00:01:00

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Business

Deloitte faces new audit investigation Business

The FCA dropped its investigation into Lookers last month, saying it had “concerns” about “the culture, systems and historic control,” but did not censor the company.

Deloitte was replaced by BDO in 2020 as Lookers’ auditor after 14 years working on the car dealership’s accounts.

In Deloitte’s resignation letter, which was filed with Companies House in January, the consulting firm said it was withdrawing from the contract after measures taken by the car dealership to address weaknesses in its financial controls came to an end. proved to “ fall short of what had been committed, and what we expected ”.

He added: “As part of our 2017 and 2018 audits, we reported to the board of directors of the company a number of recommendations for actions related to the financial controls of the company, which the company s ‘is committed to entrepreneurship.

“We made these recommendations because we considered that there was a considerable gap between the financial controls observed within the company and those we observed in other public companies of a scale and size. equivalent complexity. “

This is not the first time that Deloitte has encountered problems during its audit. Earlier this month, the accounting giant struck an $ 80million (£ 57million) deal with Malaysia for its role as auditor to 1MDB, the state investment fund involved. in a multibillion dollar embezzlement scandal.

Last November, Deloitte was fined for failing to audit work for Johnston Press and ordered to pay a record £ 15million after failing to act with ‘integrity and objectivity’ for its audits of the former FTSE 100 Autonomy technology group.

In a statement, Deloitte said, “We are taking this investigation seriously and are fully cooperating with the FRC. The quality of the audit is our priority and we are committed to maintaining the highest professional standards. ”

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-12 10:45:38

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Business

Pressure mounts on BT boss as workers vote for first strike in 30 years Business

The union row will add to the problems facing Mr Jansen, who runs the company at a time when its top executives remain divided over strategy.

Earlier this month, Mr Jansen reportedly issued an ultimatum on the leadership of BT which caused Jan du Plessis to step down as chairman.

He announced his resignation last week after failing to bridge the gap between two camps that disagree on the pace of change BT needs.

A group of directors, including Mr Jansen, want BT to speed up decisions on its national broadband network Openreach, as well as restructuring.

However, other board members want more certainty on external issues such as regulation, according to insiders.

Mr Jansen threatened to resign if the board did not find a chairman who would speed up the change, after clashing with Mr du Plessis on issues such as the potential sale of Openreach, Sky News reported.

Mr. du Plessis would have believed it was too early to bring an outside shareholder into the ownership structure of Openreach, BT’s most valuable asset. But Mr Jansen believed it could increase BT’s share price and help fund the nation’s broadband upgrade.

BT did not deny that Mr Jansen made such a threat, but a spokesperson said: “There has been no misalignment between the board and senior management on the strategy of the business.”

Mr Jansen is also awaiting a decision from Ofcom that will lay the groundwork for a new regime for fiber networks in the UK.

Ofcom is expected to introduce price controls on fiber broadband until 2031, which will give certainty to BT’s plans to invest heavily in its own gigabit broadband network.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-14 18:23:50

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Business

Kwarteng warned audit rules threaten UK recovery Business

Tim Martin, Chairman of JD Wetherspoon, said: “There is little indication in the proposals that whoever drafted them is concerned with promoting an attractive corporate culture. Directors should of course be honest, but more corporate bureaucracy will not do it. “

Defending the plan as only targeting the biggest companies and the most serious transgressions, a Whitehall source said: “It’s not like you forget to put a zero in your accounts and get fined. “

In his 232-page article, Mr Kwarteng also revealed plans to force auditors to inspect companies for carbon emissions as the UK seeks to meet a legal obligation to eliminate its contribution to climate change d ‘by 2050.

The consultation also confirms that auditors from the Big Four KPMG, EY, Deloitte and PwC should close their audit and advisory services to reduce conflicts of interest and could face a cap on their market share from FTSE 350 audits. if competition in the sector does not improve.

The changes will be overseen by the UK’s new strengthened watchdog, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority, which will replace the Financial Reporting Council and could exercise power over large unlisted companies as well as those in the stock market.

Mr Kwarteng argued that restoring confidence in business is essential to repairing the economy and rebuilding it after the pandemic.

“When big companies go bankrupt, the effects are felt overwhelmingly with job losses and the UK taxpayer takes note,” he said.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-18 00:00:14

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Inside the Indian Serum Institute, at the center of Britain’s Covid vaccine supply Business

From his baronial conference room in Pune, Adar Poonawalla can admire the perfectly manicured turf of India’s largest stud farm. Over the years, the family’s racehorses have won the Indian Derby 10 times. These days, however, the thoroughbreds frolicking across the paddock under his window may be the last thing he thinks of.

Poonawalla is Managing Director of the Serum Institute of India (SII), now the world’s largest maker of Covid vaccines, which has been operating at full capacity to produce 50 million doses per month of the AstraZeneca / University of Oxford jab.

But the company found itself at the center of Britain’s first stumbling block in the race to vaccinate its people after doses of 5 million doses it was supposed to deliver in March, facing delays.

Since the New Year, nearly 25 million Britons have had the blow – but NHS England has warned the delay will lead to a slowdown in the pace of vaccinations in April.

Poonwalla told the Telegraph the Indian government was to blame, temporarily blocking exports as it decided how to deal with a resurgence in Covid infections: “It is solely dependent on India and it has nothing to do with it. to do with IBS, ”he said. “It has to do with the Indian government allowing more doses in the UK.”

The delay is yet another sign of so-called “vaccine nationalism,” where countries are accused of cornering supplies in order to inoculate their populations first. He follows the EU, where vaccinations go at a slow pace, threatening to ban vaccine exports to Britain – as well as member countries raising controversial concerns about the safety of the AstraZeneca jab.

Speaking in an interview with The telegraph in January, Poonawalla nodded to the divided loyalties of the vaccine makers between the governments that ordered doses and their own countries: “Everyone has worked tirelessly for months and national commitments and understand what my government [India] wants us to do. It’s a good balance.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-18 09:14:46

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Vaccine shortage shows why Britain’s Brexit is right to tilt towards Asia Business

So yes, we may have gotten to where we are more by accident than by carefully crafted state art. But after Brexit, it makes sense that the UK will begin to reestablish itself on the world stage thanks to a security program, where it has undoubted strengths: a top-notch diplomatic corps, a top seat at the table NATO and membership in the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance. .

The criticism is currently not quantified and is certainly not perfect. The move to raise the nuclear weapons cap looks like a policy specifically designed to bring Labor to a standstill. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where we fire 180 nuclear warheads and kick ourselves that we don’t have another 80 to let go. There is also, at the moment, a very obvious Europe-shaped hole in the country’s foreign and defense policies.

That said, security should be an area where the UK could start improving its relationship with the EU. Some have criticized the government for excluding intelligence sharing and foreign policy from the scope of the Brexit deal, arguing that it reduced our influence during negotiations. Now that sounds like a nifty omission; an area that has hopefully not been tarnished by the grudge and acrimony of the past five years, a foundation upon which bridges can be rebuilt.

The general thrust of the review strikes the right balance between ambition and humility for a sub-superpower state that navigates the threats and opportunities of today’s hyper-connected world.

Earlier this month, Antony Blinken, the new US Secretary of State, said, “Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it should be.”

It is suspected that if such a sentiment had been expressed by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab it would instantly be ridiculed as “cakeism”, the latest example of the UK’s hopelessly confused attitude towards China.

Coming from the US Secretary of State, such triangulation, which has a tone remarkably similar to the UK’s stated goals, can best be described as what it is: diplomacy.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-18 19:00:00

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British regulator uses German watchdog Business

Germany has called on Mark Branson of Swiss financial regulator Finma to lead its beleaguered financial watchdog Bafin, the finance ministry said on Monday.

Mr. Branson, a mathematician of British origin and of Swiss and British nationality, will take up the new post “in the middle of the year,” the ministry said.

He will succeed Felix Hufeld, who was sacked in January for Bafin’s failure to prevent Wirecard fraud – Germany’s biggest accounting scandal in living memory.

Mr Branson will be tasked with implementing reforms announced in February aimed at enabling the regulator to identify fraud faster and more effectively, with a greater focus on whistleblowers.

With Mr Branson “in charge”, the regulator will continue reforms aimed at giving it “more bite”, said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.

Mr. Branson, 52, has headed Swiss financial market regulator Finma since 2014, after joining in 2010.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-03-22 14:27:39