Category: News

Lord Sugar needs “a taste of his own medicine” and should be fired as the Government’s “enterprise champion”, according to a company which advises hundreds of businesses every week as “his comments echo those of Marie Antionette.”

We spoke to this year’s winner of Online Retailer of the Year Zak Edwards who asks Richard Branson to consider launching Virgin Post whilst couriers say Royal Mail is digging its own grave.

75% of small businesses believe the economy will see an upturn next year, with 35% predicting an improvement by January 2010 according to new research out today.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said two 24-hour nationwide postal strikes will start on Thursday 22 October.

The union said it had no choice but to announce a strike after the Royal Mail rejected its latest set of proposals.

On the first day, mail centre staff and drivers will strike. The next day it will be delivery and collection staff.

The Office of Fair Trading has launched a number of studies to investigate a range of online sales practices in a bid to rid make the web more open and transparent in sales transactions.

Birmingham has been named as the best performing European city in which to do business, having risen more places in Cushman & Wakefield’s influential European Cities Monitor than any of its competitors. It is now second only to London in the UK for business.

Royal Mail postal workers have voted to take strike action over job security and working conditions.

Postal workers voted three to one in favour of action, with 61,623 out of a total of 80,830 workers who voted saying they wanted to strike.

The company and unions have been unable to resolve differences on how best to modernise the postal service.

Royal Mail says it needs to make big changes to combat a fall in the number of letter and parcel deliveries.

There have already been a series of regional strikes around the country in recent weeks that have created a backlog of millions of letters.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the workers, must give seven days notice before any strike begins.

Royal Mail was last night reported to have lost a £25 million contract with Amazon, its second largest customer, as a national strike looms over the crucial Christmas period.

The struggling company, which has been buffeted by a series of wildcat strikes since July, could suffer more cancellations if its service continues to be disrupted.

This week a survey of Britain’s leading store group executives found that 34% do not expect strong growth until 2011 and are preparing for a ‘flat Christmas’ Couple this with August’s findings by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), stating that retail sales in Central London had fallen by 5.9%, and Christmas is not looking very jolly for retailers.

It has been confirmed that Business Minister Baroness Vadera is to leave Gordon Brown’s government.

She was appointed in January 2008 following a Cabinet reshuffle.

Corporate Britain should be protected from proposed sweeping reforms on bonuses and risk-taking, according to the Institute of Directors (IoD).

In its first detailed response to Sir David Walker’s review of banks’ bonus culture and risk practices, the IoD will say today that some of his proposed measures are too draconian and should not be forced on companies outside the financial sector.

Optimism is growing among Britain’s manufacturers, but conditions in the sector remain challenging, according to the CBI’s latest monthly Industrial Trends Survey.

Business lending fell by the largest amount on record in July after banks wrote off £2.2billion of corporate debt.

Lending contracted by £8.4billion between June and July as banks pulled in their horns amid soaring defaults. The Bank of England figures suggest claims from lenders that they are giving more credit to business customers should be treated with extreme scepticism.

A national study by the UK’s leading online takeaway site has found that Sheffield is home to the hardest working employees in the country, where employees are giving their companies the equivalent of 1 extra day’s work a week in unpaid labour through missed lunches and staying late.

The Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has intervened in what had become a turf war between the regions and Whitehall will lead to the Treasury signing off one £125m fund proposed by OneNorthEast.

A second £140m fund designed by the North West Regional Development Agency is being revised and will be resubmitted for Treasury approval this week.