Category Archives: Annual results

Major UK investors join push for retail giants to pay workers ‘real living wage’

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Axa and Scottish Widows back ShareAction campaign for chains such as Next to pay at least £12.60 an hour

Major investors including Axa and Scottish Widows are backing shareholder resolutions pressing retailers Next, Marks & Spencer and JD Sports to increase pay for thousands of workers.

More than 100 individuals and eight institutional investors, which manage over £1tn in assets, are backing an effort to encourage companies to pay a “real living wage”, which is designed to ensure workers can cover necessary household costs.

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Coffee prices will rise even higher, says Giuseppe Lavazza

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For UK consumers the cost of beans could increase by up to 25% over the coming year

The price of coffee is set to remain “very high” and is unlikely to drop until the middle of next year amid intense pressure on supply chains, the Italian coffee company Lavazza has said.

“We have never seen such a spike in price as the trend right now,” said Giuseppe Lavazza, who chairs the company. He admitted that he had been wrong to predict last year that prices would begin to fall this year. On Monday, prices reached $4,300 (£3,356) a tonne.

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Elon Musk may ‘step back’ if shareholders reject $56bn pay package, Tesla chair warns

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Robyn Denholm says electric carmaker’s CEO could spend his time elsewhere if biggest pay deal in US corporate history isn’t approved

The chair of Tesla has raised the prospect of Elon Musk stepping back from the electric carmaker if shareholders do not back the chief executive’s $56bn (£44bn) pay package, saying there are “other places” the entrepreneur could spend his time.

Robyn Denholm added in a letter to investors that next week’s vote on the biggest remuneration deal in US corporate history was “obviously not about the money” because Musk would remain one of the richest people on the planet regardless of the outcome.

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Burberry profits slump by 40% as demand for luxury goods slows

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British fashion retailer hit by drop in sales in Asia and Americas, and expects challenging first half of 2025

Burberry’s profits have slumped by 40% in a year amid a wider slowdown in demand for luxury goods that has pushed down sales in Asia and the Americas.

The high-end UK fashion retailer posted a pre-tax profit of £383m for the year up to 30 March in its preliminary results on Wednesday, a 40% drop on the £634m in the previous 12 months. Global sales fell by 8% in the second half of the year.

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Gazprom slumps to first annual loss in 22 years as trade with Europe hit

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£5.5bn loss in 2023 comes after gas sales more than halved following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom has plunged to its first annual loss in more than 20 years, after gas sales more than halved following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The company made a net loss of 629bn roubles (£5.5bn) in 2023 amid dwindling gas trade with Europe, once Gazprom’s main sales market, as a result of sanctions and the throttling of pipelines to the continent.

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Jamie and Jools Oliver pay themselves almost £7m in dividends

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Payout for 2022 up from £5.6m a year before, as income bounces back after collapse of UK restaurant empire

Jamie Oliver and his wife, Jools, have paid themselves £6.8m in dividends, up from £5.6m a year before, after a bounceback in television and restaurant income.

The celebrity chef, whose UK restaurant empire collapsed in 2019 with the loss of 1,000 jobs, has 70 restaurants around the world run by franchise partners and has sold 2m books spun out from last year’s TV series Jamie’s One-Pan Wonders.

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Losses deepen at GB News as network moves to fend off rival TalkTV

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Hiring costs for presenters such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg balloon while advertisers stay wary of right-leaning channel

GB News made a loss of more than £30m in its first year on air, as the right-leaning news channel invested in hiring presenters to combat the launch of rival TalkTV.

The controversy-prone channel which launched in June 2021 racked up a pre-tax loss of £30.7m in the year to the end of May 2022, a period in which it hired former Ukip leader Nigel Farage to host a nightly primetime show.

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Calls for bigger windfall tax after Shell makes ‘obscene’ $40bn profit

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Sunak government under pressure after gas prices fuel ‘outrageous’ doubling of profits at Anglo-Dutch group

The government is under pressure to rethink its windfall tax on energy companies after Shell reported one of the largest profits in UK corporate history, with the surge in energy prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushing the oil company’s annual takings to $40bn (£32bn).

Opposition parties and trade unions described Shell’s bonanza, the biggest in its 115 year history, as “outrageous” and accused Rishi Sunak of letting fossil fuel companies “off the hook”.

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