EastEnders, Bonmarché, Sainsbury’s and Asda merger, wages: your commercial news round-up
updated on 13 December 2018
With all the furore of government in the past few days, we’re going to assume that you’re fully up to speed (or bored to tears) with all things Brexit-related. Treat yourself this festive period by looking a bit further than the B-word to this week’s selection of commercial news stories that might be of interest to you:
- The expansion and rebuild of the EastEnders set has gone over budget by over £27 million. The original forecast for the project was £59.7 million but the revised budget is now £86.7 million and it’s running three years behind schedule. The BBC said the project was “large” and “complex” and explained that there had been “challenges on the way”.
- Shares of high-street retailer Bonmarché plummeted this morning after investors sold out following a profit warning. As a result, the shop has lost nearly half its value with shares falling 45% over night. Bonmarché blames Brexit as a “significant factor affecting demand” but believes it will recover in 2020 after the UK has left the EU.
- Supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Asda will take the competition watchdog to a judicial review, arguing that the investigation of their merger needs more time. The merger of both supermarkets is due to be investigated by the Competitions and Markets Authority with an expected completion date at the start of March 2019, but Sainsbury’s says that both companies felt the current timetable is not enough “to provide and consider all the evidence given the unprecedented scale and complexity of the case”.
- Wages in the UK are continuing to rise at their highest level since 2008, reported the Office for National Statistics this week. The number of people in work also rose by 79,000 to 32.48 million, which is a record high.
- Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have been ordered to pay $5 million after their long-running copyright case over their 2013 hit song ‘Blurred Lines’. Marvin Gaye’s family claim that the song copies Gaye’s 1977 hit ‘Got to Give It Up’. The family originally won the case in 2015, with Thicke and Williams appealing. This new amended judgement confirms the settlement. Gaye’s family will be entitled to 50% of all future royalties earned by the song.
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