Tag Archives: Companies

Vesa, for its part, has made some platitudes about how Sainsbury’s “strong brand” and well-located stores in the more prosperous south-east make it “an attractive long-term investment opportunity”. But it seems unlikely that the tycoon is happy to remain a passive shareholder, and he continues to play his cards close …

The Government has written down the value of the Post Office to zero after the state-owned chain was hit by the postmasters scandal. In its annual report, the Department for Business said the value of its holding in Post Office Ltd had plummeted from £145m to “nil” in the year …

Boss Simon Thompson insists the pandemic has triggered “a structural shift”, turbocharging demand for parcels and accelerating the long-term decline in letters. Despite a mini-revival in recent months, letter deliveries are a fifth lower than before coronavirus erupted. Yet this is Royal Mail. For a company that has been bringing …

The only thing Back’s £1.8bn “transformation plan” succeeded in transforming was relations with the unions, and not for the better. He infuriated the Communication Workers Union, first by trying to force through changes to pay and working conditions while commuting from his luxury Swiss apartment, then refusing to jet into Britain …

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will hold crunch talks over the future of Britain’s railways next week after delaying publication of the biggest review of the train network since privatisation. Plans to publish a rail blueprint before May’s local elections have been shelved with the Treasury at loggerheads with the …

But Mr Brown said: “We are operating a service that the Government wants us to operate to allow key workers to get to places … and keep industry going. And we are being paid a management fee for running that contract.    “If you were talking to [waste management company] Veolia …

Royal Mail and Amazon are scrambling to seize control of Boris Johnson’s “Operation Moonshot” programme to deliver 215,000 home testing kits a day. The duo are this weekend finalising rival bids to win a £550m, one-year contract from the taxpayer to spearhead home testing as part of NHS Test and …

In the UK, government contracts worth millions of pounds have been awarded to companies without competitive bidding during the pandemic. Close scrutiny reveals many of the firms have close links to leading figures in Whitehall. The Covid-19 pandemic has meant a miserable year for businesses of every size in every …

Italy provides a more recent example. Despite being privatised after Royal Mail, in 2014, the business has flourished. Parcels are now delivered seven days a week. Since being floated it has overtaken, rather than fallen behind, its rivals. Royal Mail, meanwhile, is looking to shorten its current six-day delivery schedule when …

The Government’s testing regime has come under pressure in recent weeks amid reports testing centres have been overwhelmed by demand. Mr Williams said: “[Moonshot] is an opportunity for Royal Mail to show what we can do after the rapid change of the postal market in 2020. “We have challenges, but …