Ocado says fire at warehouse will hit sales growth and orders. Online grocery retailer unable to say when deliveries will resume from Andover facility. Ocado Group (OCDO) online grocery service is expected to face significant disruption for some weeks after a huge fire at one of its automated warehouses. The company was unable to say when deliveries would resume from the Hampshire facility, as it issued a warning to the stock market that its sales growth would take a hit from the blaze at the warehouse in Andover in Hampshire. The site processes about 30,000 orders a week, mainly for people living in the south-west of the UK, and it will only be possible to divert some of these to Ocado’s three other distribution plants. “While we are informed by the fire brigade that it is now under control, during the night part of the roof collapsed and there has been substantial damage to the majority of the building and its contents,” the group said.
Troubled government contractor Interserve agrees rescue deal. Company, which has 45,000 employees in UK, hopes to avoid Carillion-style collapse. Interserve (IRV), the contractor attempting to head off a Carillion-style collapse, has agreed a rescue deal with its creditors. The company, which employs 45,000 people in the UK and is heavily reliant on government contracts, said the deal would help it reduce its debts from more than £600m to £275m in return for new shares in the firm. Interserve has a vast number of public sector contracts in areas such as school meals, hospital cleaning and probation services. Debbie White, the firm’s chief executive, said the financing arrangements were a significant step forward in the firm’s plans to strengthen its balance sheet. “The board believes that this agreement will secure a strong future for Interserve. This proposal has been achieved following a long period of intensive negotiation and has the support of our financial stakeholders and government,” she added.
GVC Holdings (GVC) – Ladbrokes staff told to sign gamblers to online accounts to avoid redundancy. Bookmaker to close 1,000 of its 3,500 shops with redundancies decided by ranking system. Bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral is telling shop staff to sign up as many gamblers as possible to online accounts if they want to avoid being among 5,000 employees it plans to make redundant, the Guardian has learned. According to letters circulated among employees – and seen by the Guardian – the bookmaker will close up to 1,000 of its 3,500 shops over the next 18 to 24 months, blaming imminent curbs on £100-per-spin fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). Redundancies will be decided via a ranking system, with staff grouped by area and competing against each other on a range of criteria to escape the axe.
Cabinet Office voices concern over Interserve (IRV) rescue deal. Public sector contractor employing 45,000 people in UK faces Carillion-style collapse over £800m debt. The government has raised objections to a rescue plan designed to stave off a Carillion-style collapse at Interserve, the contractor whose public sector contracts include hospital cleaning and serving school meals. Lenders to the company, which employs 45,000 people in the UK, are trying to thrash out the terms of a plan under which they would agree to cancel nearly half of the company’s £807m net debt for shares in the company and effectively take control of it. But the government is understood to have advised against a key component of the plan that would involve ringfencing its most profitable division, construction industry supplier RMD Kwikform.
Ocado Group (OCDO) warehouse fire still burning 24 hours later. Around 200 firefighters and 20 fire engines continue to battle blaze at automated Hampshire hub of grocery delivery service. A huge fire that broke out at an Ocado robotic warehouse in Hampshire has continued to burn more than 24 hours later. Around 200 firefighters and 20 fire engines were sent to the blaze which began at the Andover facility at around 2.44am on Tuesday morning. Hampshire fire service said in the early hours of Wednesday morning that four of its firefighters had been treated for smoke inhalation. “Part of the roof has now collapsed and the fire in the complex robot-run distribution centre is still ongoing.” The online grocery retailer has been forced to cancel thousands of customer deliveries due to the fire at its flagship automated warehouse. It handles more than 4,000 orders a day and uses hundreds of robots to select groceries from a 3D frame called the “grid”. Ocado said: “We will assess the damage this incident has caused and will update further as appropriate.” The company’s share price dipped when the first reports of the fire emerged at lunchtime on Tuesday, before investors returned to focusing on the annual results published earlier in the day and the announcement of a new one-hour grocery delivery service, Ocado Zoom, to compete more directly with Amazon.
Tobacco firms not paying fair share of UK corporation tax – report. Four largest companies dispute claim that they consistently pay less than headline rate. Global tobacco companies should be paying more UK corporation tax, according to a report that claims they are not contributing their fair share despite making massive profits. Academics at the University of Bath found that the four largest cigarette companies pay hundreds of millions of pounds in tax overseas but consistently pay less than the headline rate of UK corporation tax. The companies, which disputed the report’s findings, include Gauloises-maker Imperial Brands (IMB) and British American Tobacco (BATS), owner of Camel and Lucky Strike. According to the report, Imperial Brands, BAT and Gallaher, a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco International (JTI), made UK operating profits of more than £1bn between them in 2016 but paid £83.6m combined, a rate of less than 10%.
