The boss of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) rapped climate change protesters as he promised all flights within the UK will be carbon neutral from next year. Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, said BA will plough enough money into carbon-reducing schemes to balance out the 400,000 tons of CO2 that the flights generate. It came as parent company IAG said it will become the first airline group in the world to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Walsh said: ‘I don’t think we need Extinction Rebellion to tell us there’s something we need to do. We’ve been engaging with environmental groups for years.’
Andrea Leadsom, the Business Secretary, last night rapped Barclays (BARC) decision to ban its customers from taking out cash through post offices and called on the bank to think again. She said bosses at the High Street giant should reconsider their decision. ‘I think this is very disappointing,’ she said. ‘Post offices provide such a lifeline for so many people particularly in rural areas where there has been a tendency not to be a bank anyway. ‘The opening hours tend to be longer than at banks. Access to finance is so useful for elderly people and people without transport. ‘The Post Office has been really helpful to people getting access to cash and carrying out their day-to- day financial transactions so, yes, I am disappointed.’
BT Group (BT.A) is coming back to the High Street after a 17-year absence as part of a plan to provide ‘good, old-fashioned’ customer service. The telecoms giant is revamping its 615 EE phone shops so that BT customers can receive technical support or deal with billing issues. These shops previously only carried EE’s logo and branding but will now also feature those of its parent company BT, which owns the mobile network. The announcement came as new BT chief executive Phil Jansen pledged to make the company a ‘national champion’. BT is also moving all of its customer call centres to the UK and Ireland and has promised 900 ‘home technology experts’ will be on call to visit homes and fix problems.
GVC Holdings (GVC) has upped its full year profit forecast, amid healthy online sales. While GVC’s finances look set to be given a boost, the group is still ploughing ahead with plans to close 900 of its bricks-and-mortar stores over the next two years. The company’s British high street stores posted an 18% like-for-like drop in revenues for the quarter, driven by the changes to fixed odds betting terminal rules, but these remain ahead of expectations.
New car sales at Vertu Motors (VTU) fell over 10% in the six months to 31 August, the firm revealed. Vertu said it had seen ‘softer’ demand from buyers for new cars, with the Brexit-hit pound hitting manufacturers’ costs and pushing up prices for consumers. The group posted a 7% drop in pre-tax profits to £16.1million. Vertu admitted that new car sales had continued to fall in September, dipping 1.6% on a like-for-like basis. The group said: ‘Continued sterling weakness driving price rises and declining used car residual values have led to an increase in the cost to change for consumers seeking a new car. ‘This has reduced demand, with change cycles lengthening.’
Ex-Thomas Cook Group (TCG) workers are rejoicing as independent firm Hays Travel takes them on, buying 555 stores from the collapsed holiday giant to save up to 3,000 jobs. Sunderland-based Hays Travel has already employed 421 members of Thomas Cook staff since the travel group went out of business last month. The company, which is the UK’s largest independent travel group, now intends to reopen the shops immediately, potentially saving up to 2,500 further jobs. About 21,000 Thomas Cook staff globally lost their jobs when the company went under, including 9,000 in the UK.
Pressure Technologies (PRES) has won a contract worth more than £3million from EDF Energy to work on nuclear power plants. It will supply nitrogen storage at plants at Heysham, Torness and Hartlepool. Its cylinders, made by its Sheffield subsidiary Chesterfield Special Cylinders (CSC), will be supplied to EDF by mid-2020. Boss Chris Walters said: ‘This represents the largest order in CSC’s history outside the defence sector.’
was proving less of a hit with its shareholders. Major investors Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) is pushing it to drop its membership of controversial lobbying groups at its annual meeting next week. BHP is currently a member of several powerful groups which lobby for the fossil fuels industry, and have been blamed for obstructing the progress of measures designed to minimise harm to the environment. Investors vote next week on whether BHP should quit these organisations. The company has told all investors to vote against the resolution, arguing that the lobbying bodies still have a role to play in shaping the future of the industry.
