Patisserie Valerie to close down without ‘immediate injection of capital’. Board of cakes and cafe chain says it is ‘assessing all options available to the business’. The stricken cakes and cafe chain Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) is teetering close to collapse after admitting it needed “an immediate injection of capital” to survive. The blunt statement from the directors of the 200-strong chain, which has nearly 3,000 staff, came less than 48 hours after the company said it had discovered a multimillion-pound black hole in its accounts and was suspending its shares. The company – valued at £450m when trading was halted – was unable to say if it would be able to pay staff wages this week. It later revealed it was facing a winding-up order from HMRC over an unpaid tax bill of more than £1m that was filed in the high court in mid-September but which the firm’s directors had been unaware of.
WH Smith to close six stores and 24 Cardmarket outlets. Group to bring 40 crown post offices into its shops as overall pretax profits fall 4%. WH Smith (SMWH) is closing about 30 stores, most of which are part of its Cardmarket budget chain, as it adapts to challenging conditions on the high street. Stephen Clarke, the chief executive, said the retailer would be closing six WH Smith stores which had “not got a hope of making any money” and about 24 Cardmarket outlets over the next three years. WH Smith would not confirm how many jobs would be affected, but Clarke said staff would probably be redeployed to other stores as the chain continued to open new outlets in hospitals, airports and other travel hubs. The chain said it expected to open up to 20 stores in the UK this year, about half of which would be in hospitals, and had 607 high street shops as well as 867 travel outlets around the world.
Nestlé and Unilever spearhead food industry coalition on animal welfare. Seven multinationals unite in drive to improve supply chain standards, though campaigners warn only firm commitments will make an impact. Pressure from consumers and investors has pushed seven of the largest names in the food industry to join forces in improving animal welfare standards, the first industry-led coalition of its kind. The members of the Global Coalition for Animal Welfare (GCAW) are Aramark, Compass Group (CPG), Elior Group, Ikea Food Services, Nestlé, Sodexo and Unilever (ULVR), which jointly serve 3.7bn customers daily, and have combined revenues of $165bn (£124bn). The five companies alongside Nestlé and Unilever are food service firms with an extensive global reach. Sodexo, a French food services company, works across 80 countries. The American food service giant Aramark has a huge influence in the US, with clients spanning prisons and public schools. Over the coming months representatives from the seven member companies will meet animal welfare experts to discuss ways to improve standards further down the supply chain, focusing on cage-free policies, conditions for broiler chickens and farmed fish, antimicrobial resistance and the transportation and slaughter of animals.
