Royal Mail (RMG) shares plunge to record low as it delivers fewer letters. Privatised service lowers its profit forecast despite rise in number of parcels it handles. Royal Mail’s share price slumped on Tuesday to its lowest point since privatisation after declining junk mail and “business uncertainty” meant it delivered fewer letters. Addressed letter volumes, excluding the impact of elections, fell by 8% year on year in the nine months to 23 December, while letter revenues fell by 6%. Companies have been forced to scale back their mass mail marketing campaigns because of tighter EU rules introduced under the General Data Protection Regulation which have strengthened privacy controls. Meanwhile, businesses continue to shift from letters to email for communications with customers.
Domino’s sells more than 500,000 pizzas in record UK trading day. Chain reports bumper sales on Friday before Christmas, but slow global growth cuts profits. Domino’s Pizza Group (DOM) sold more than 535,000 pizzas in the UK on the Friday before Christmas – equivalent to 12 a second over a 12-hour trading day – but a weaker international performance has forced the company to slice its profit guidance. The strong run-up to Christmas helped group sales to rise by 5.5% year on year to £339.5m in the 13 weeks to 30 December, it said in a trading update published on Tuesday. Sales growth was driven by its Republic of Ireland operations, where like-for-like sales rose by 7.5%. However, Domino’s efforts to expand to new markets after fast UK growth stumbled during the quarter. International sales fell by 2% year on year to £26.6m.
Barclays (BARC) executive had sleepless nights over Qatar ‘bung’, court told. Richard Boath ‘told lawyer at bank he would start to tremble when rereading documents relating to deal’. A senior Barclays banker had sleepless nights worrying that journalists would discover that the British bank had paid a multimillion-pound “bung” to the prime minister of Qatar, a court heard. Richard Boath, an executive in Barclays’ investment banking division, told a senior lawyer at the bank that he would “start to tremble” when he reread documents relating to an alleged “dodgy” deal Barclays executives struck with Qatari investors, according to a transcript read to the jury during the fourth day of the fraud trial at London’s Southwark crown court on Monday. Boath and three other former Barclays executives, including the then chief executive, John Varley, are accused of conspiring to secretly pay Qatar £322m, in return for billions of pounds of investment in the bank, thereby allowing it to avoid a government bailout during the 2008 financial crisis. The court heard transcripts of a phone call between the bankers in which one said: “John [Varley] is scared to death that the government turn up tomorrow morning.”
Tesco confirms 9,000 jobs at risk as it axes fresh food counters. Supermarket says it hopes to redeploy up to half of staff affected by cost-cutting. Tesco (TSCO) has confirmed that up to 9,000 staff jobs are at risk as it closes fresh food counters in about 90 of its stores and makes cuts at its head office. The retailer, which has more than 300,000 UK employees and more than 3,400 stores, said it hoped to redeploy up to half of the 9,000 directly employed Tesco staff into other customer service roles. The Guardian understands that hundreds more jobs are at risk from the closure of about 200 staff canteens, which have been run by outsourcing companies since 2017. Tesco said it could not confirm how many outsourced jobs would be affected.
