Coronavirus, Flybe’s administration, tech-giant Apple and John Lewis: your commercial news round-up
updated on 05 March 2020
With the coronavirus outbreak causing growing concerns across the world, our latest commercial news round-up summarises several developments relating to the virus, as well as other news stories which are affecting the business and legal worlds this week.
- The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warns that in 2020, the “world’s economy could grow at its slowest rate since 2009” as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The OECD has also announced that if the outbreak lasts longer and becomes more intensive, growth could halve to 1.5% in 2020, as precautionary measures are taken in an attempt to contain the virus.
In the UK, a number of pharmacy chains, including Boots and Lloyds Pharmacy, have reported that they are limiting hand sanitiser sales due to a spike in demand. While British supermarkets have created “feed the nation” contingency plans in response to potential panic-buying caused by the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Guardian. Among other precautionary measures, Italy has also closed all schools and universities, and all sporting events, including the Rugby World cup, will be held in empty stadiums until 3 April.
- Flybe’s future has been an important topic of conversation since the beginning of the year, with uncertainty about whether the government will financially support the failing airline. Despite its request for financial support, it was announced yesterday that the UK airline has gone into administration. In addition to the 2,000 jobs now at risk, the UK government is also “working closely with industry to minimise any disruption to routes operated by Flybe”.
- Multinational tech company Apple will pay up to £391 million in order to settle a lawsuit accusing it of deliberately slowing down older iPhone models.
- Following a recent warning from John Lewis that its shops could close due to a “plunge in profits”, the department store’s new chair Sharon White recently stated: “We need to reverse our profit decline and return to growth so that we can invest more in our customers and in our partners.
“This will require a transformation in how we operate as a partnership and could take three to five years to show results.” In response to this statement, Catherine Shuttleworth, the chief executive of retail analysists Savvy, said “I don’t think there are three to five years in retail at the minute where there isn’t going to be an enormous amount of change.” She added: “John Lewis have been ‘strategically reviewing’ things for quite a while – we need some action.” As part of this rebuild, John Lewis & Partners has also announced that three of its Waitrose stores (Helensburgh, Four Oaks and Waterlooville) will close later this year.
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