Commercial news round-up: Budget, Snapchat, Peugeot/Vauxhall, Budgens, John Lewis
updated on 09 March 2017
Philip Hammond delivered his first budget yesterday, and it was a mixed bag to say the least. While the UK’s growth forecast has been upgraded for 2017, it has been downgraded for subsequent years. Self-employed workers face a significant hike in their national insurance payments, but fuel duty has been frozen for another year. An additional £2 billion is to go to social care funding, but the NHS remains woefully underfunded. The BBC has provided a useful summary of these and other key points. For a selection of other big commercial stories that made headlines this week, take a look at these:
- With much fanfare, Snapchat floated on the US stock market this week, causing its share price to jump 44% and it to be valued at an astounding $30 billion.
- Peugeot-Citroen bought Vauxhall/Opel for £1.9 billion. However, the French carmaker was quick to reassure workers that it had no intention of closing factories or making redundancies.
- There seems to be a trend for slightly depressing grocery news, added to this week with revelations that over 30 Budgens stores are to close because their owner Food Retailer Operations Limited has gone into administration. Around 800 jobs are to be lost.
- John Lewis has cut its much-awaited staff bonus to 6% of salary, which is the lowest it has been since 1954. Expect consternation from employees, as the company in fact enjoyed pre-tax profits of 21% last year.
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