Amazon has announced plans to create more than 10,000 new permanent jobs in the UK this year. The online retail giant is opening new operations in Hinckley, Doncaster, Dartford, Gateshead and Swindon in 2021 and is also hiring for corporate roles as well as its cloud-computing division Amazon Web Services. Amazon’s latest recruitment drive, hailed
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Kellogg’s has promised to cut sugar in its children’s cereals by 10% and salt by 20%. The move, part of a decade-long plan, will lead to all the food company’s cereals no longer being high in fat, salt and sugar by the end of next year. It also plans to cut the sugar in Krave,
The world’s largest travel firm has warned it may be forced to cancel holiday flights to Portugal, just as the UK allows them again, because of a continuing EU ban on non-essential travel from countries outside the bloc. TUI, which told Sky News earlier this week that people were giving up on booking a break
Tesla has halted the use of Bitcoin to pay for its vehicles because of the environmental impact of using the currency. Bitcoin is created when high-powered computers compete against other machines to solve complex mathematical puzzles, a process known as mining, an energy-intensive activity that currently often relies on electricity generated with fossil fuels, particularly
Holidaymakers have been giving up on getaways this summer thanks to a “lack of clarity” on the easing of travel restrictions, latest trading figures from TUI suggest. The German-based travel giant said 2.6 million customers were booked for its peak season, down from 2.8 million reported in February – with some putting off their holidays
David Cameron told the Treasury’s top civil servant it was “bonkers” that a financial services firm he was lobbying for had been denied access to government-backed COVID loans. MPs on the Treasury select committee have released correspondence between the former prime minister and a range of ministers and officials on behalf of Greensill Capital. It
Soho House Group, the global network of private members’ clubs, is to change its name and offer its shares to tens of thousands of customers as part of a plan to give it a flying start to life as a publicly listed company. Sky News has learnt that Soho House is to rename its parent
Ministers are preparing to sell another stake in NatWest Group, taking British taxpayers close to ending their status as the bank’s majority shareholder for the first time in well over a decade. Sky News has learnt that a number of institutional investors have been sounded out about a possible placing of NatWest shares that could
Subprime credit firm Provident Financial is to axe its doorstep lending arm putting 2,100 jobs at risk, blaming “changing industry and regulatory” dynamics. The lender has faced growing customer complaints and an investigation by the City regulator, and earlier this year offered to set up a £50m fund to try to resolve compensation claims. It
In a factory somewhere on the outskirts of Birmingham sits a machine which tells you rather a lot about the UK economy and where it’s heading. This machine, made by Japanese company Yamada, is cutting and pressing tiny pieces of metal from a sheet of copper alloy being fed into it. Brandauer, the company whose
An “unbelievable” surge in post-lockdown demand for cask beer is offering “a glimmer of hope” for the struggling UK pub industry. Production has been ramped up at breweries after some underestimated just how many pints would be sold in pubs after they reopened in last month. The demand meant that the Timothy Taylor’s brewery in
Hospitality chiefs have urged the chancellor to prepare a new financial support package for the industry even as remaining restrictions on their operations are lifted in the coming weeks. Sky News has seen a letter sent this weekend sent by Kate Nicholls, the UK Hospitality chief executive, to Rishi Sunak in which she calls on
Britain’s biggest high street lender is in advanced talks about its biggest corporate acquisition since it was returned to full private ownership four years ago. Sky News has learnt that Lloyds Banking Group is close to finalising a £400m takeover of Embark Group, a privately owned provider of savings and retirement products. City sources said
The parent firm of British Airways has demanded government action in “four key areas” to help facilitate the restart of foreign travel while revealing a reduction in first quarter losses. International Airlines Group (IAG) argued that the authorities globally needed to assist airlines begin the process of economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis through measures
It is a striking number, a historic one. The strongest economic growth since 1941. The Bank of England’s decision to upgrade its growth forecast for this year from 5% to 7.25% is not exactly a surprise. Everyone was expecting a big number, and indeed up until the third lockdown over the opening months of 2020
The Bank of England has upgraded its growth forecast for the coronavirus-hit UK economy and signalled it will not raise the interest rate in the near term – despite seeing a looming spike in inflation ahead. The latest meeting of the central bank’s interest rate-setting committee left policy unchanged, with rates remaining at their COVID-19