Business

Asda has chartered its own cargo ship to ensure that it is well stocked with festive decorations, toys, clothes and gifts amid a global supply chain crisis. Britain’s third-biggest supermarket chain also said it had increased the volume of turkeys and pigs in blankets available in stores compared with last year. Meanwhile the retailer’s depots

Stock markets across Europe have recovered some losses at the open despite lingering fears the omicron variant will knock the global economic recovery from coronavirus pandemic damage. Following a bloodbath for shares globally on Friday, that saw the FTSE 100 in London suffer its worst daily percentage losses since June 2020, values rebounded somewhat. However,

Deliveroo is close to naming Goldman Sachs as one of its new brokers, eight months after the Wall Street bank played a major role in what became one of the London stock market’s most calamitous listings. Sky News has learnt that Deliveroo is close to finalising the appointments of Goldman and Barclays as joint corporate

The owner of Butlin’s is preparing to put it up for sale amid a boom in British staycations, sparking a potential bidding frenzy for the country’s best-known chain of holiday camps. Sky News has learnt that Bourne Leisure, which also owns Haven and Warner Leisure Hotels, recently picked investment bankers to conduct an auction of

News of a potentially fast-spreading new coronavirus variant has already triggered a violent reaction on markets and in a number of different asset classes. While much attention has naturally alighted on equity markets, with big falls in the FTSE-100 and continental European indices such as the DAX in Germany and the CAC-40 in France, probably

More than £65bn was wiped off the UK stock market on Friday, reflecting fears that a new coronavirus variant could wreak further havoc on international business and travel. The FTSE 100 fell more than 3%, or 240 points, as the market opened on Friday morning, following steep drops in global markets. Shares in major airlines

Amazon’s largest UK warehouse is being blockaded by climate activists in Black Friday protests. Extinction Rebellion‘s Black Friday demonstration, with about 20 activists, started at 4am at the distribution centre in Dunfermline, Fife. The group said it was also targeting Amazon sites in Doncaster, Darlington, Newcastle, Manchester, Peterborough, Derby, Coventry, Rugeley, Dartford, Bristol, Tilbury and

Retailers are putting up prices at the fastest rate since 1990 according to industry figures that add to evidence of a cost of living squeeze this winter. A CBI survey also suggested that sales have been boosted by consumers starting their Christmas shopping early because of fears over supply disruption. Clothing and department stores saw

Hospitality firms face a “major challenge” from higher energy and staff costs as they seek to rebuild following the pandemic, bar and pub operator Mitchells & Butlers has warned. The company behind brands such as Harvester and All Bar One reported a second year in a row of annual losses though said in recent weeks

Bulb, Britain’s seventh biggest energy supplier, has formally entered into administration – becoming the biggest victim so far of the crisis in the industry. The collapse – confirmed by the government on Wednesday night – comes after the company, which was launched in 2015 and has 1.7 million customers, confirmed earlier this week that it

The president of the CBI has called on the prime minister to “stop hiking taxes and focus on boosting investment” in a rebuke over the increasing burdens being placed on business. Lord Bilimoria will cite policies such as plans to increase corporation tax and national insurance in a speech to the business organisation’s annual conference.

Professional football club-owners in England will be overseen by a new licensing regime forcing them to demonstrate fully-funded three-year business plans under proposals to be set out by a former sports minister this week. Sky News has learnt that a review of football’s governance led by Tracey Crouch, the Conservative MP, will outline the new

The chief executive of AstraZeneca (AZ) has told Sky News that the company’s decision to begin seeking a modest profit from its COVID vaccine is unlikely to kick in until next year. Pascal Soriot said this was because it still had many doses of the vaccine to supply that it had promised to do so

Bulb, Britain’s seventh-biggest energy supplier, is facing collapse within days amid eleventh-hour talks between the government and the company’s biggest secured creditor. Sky News has learnt that the company, which launched in 2015 and has amassed 1.7 million customers, is expected to appoint insolvency practitioners imminently. The precise timing remained unclear on Monday because of

The UK “feels like a branch line economy” in many areas after years of neglect in left-behind parts of the country, according to the head of the CBI. Tony Danker argues that the successful delivery of the government’s “levelling up” agenda will be determined by whether it delivers economic growth in every part of the

The Official Receiver is advancing a legal claim against the auditors of Carillion, the collapsed construction giant, that could target as much as £1bn in damages. Sky News understands that the liquidators of the former FTSE-100 constituent filed a claim form against KPMG on Friday – a move which gives the claimant four months to

Virgin Atlantic Airways is drawing up plans for a fresh £400m funding injection as prospects fade for an initial public offering (IPO) of Sir Richard Branson’s flagship company. Sky News has learnt that the transatlantic carrier is in talks with its shareholders and other financial stakeholders about raising additional capital to see it through the

Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is at increased risk due to a failure to conduct sufficient checks on the now-collapsed finance firm that David Cameron lobbied for, a committee of MPs has found. A a new report by the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC), on the lessons to be learned

Ryanair has confirmed plans to abandon its London listing, in a move that will be seen as a post-Brexit snub to the UK’s financial centre. The no-frills carrier had said at the start of the month that it was considering the idea due to a fall in trading volumes of its shares on the London

Grant Shapps has said promises the government made to the North on rail are “absolutely being fulfilled” despite the eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds being scrapped and plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail being downgraded. The transport secretary told Sky News that the government’s new £96bn Integrated Rail Plan for the North and the Midlands