Business News Round Up (04/12/2020)
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Retail footfall plunges almost 40% as local lockdowns take their toll
Scottish retail footfall decreased by 39.7% year-on-year in November, with an 8.5% deterioration from October – although this remains above the UK average decline of 65.4%. The latest British Retail Consortium and ShopperTrak figures showed that year-on-year footfall in Glasgow decreased by 49% in November, a further 13% fall from October. After Northern Ireland, Scotland saw the shallowest shopping centre footfall decline of all regions, down 38.9% last month. Weekly footfall has steadily declined over the last four weeks, with a sharp drop in the final week of the month, following 11 local authorities moving into local lockdowns on 20 November.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/retail-footfall-plunges-almost-40-23111338
Supercharged NW companies in latest ranking of UK’s fastest growing private firms
Ten North West firms have made it on to the list of the UK’s fastest growing private firms. The 24th annual Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing sales. The 10 North West firms, down from 11 last year, include five new entrants. Their sales have grown by an average of 71% a year over three years to a total of £311 million, all are profitable, and they employ more than 3,700 people. The figures relate to financial periods before COVID-19 struck. The region’s top-ranked company is a new entrant, National Care Group, based in Accrington in Lancashire, which ranks in the top three nationally, having grown sales by an average of 183% a year to £60.8 million in 2019.
Scotland’s leading businesses and organisations unite under shared manifesto for clean growth
Public, private and third sector partners have united in a shared mission to identify the economic opportunities that a net zero future offers the Scottish economy. A new report published by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) and 16 businesses and organisations – including Shell, Scottish Power, NatureScot, North Ayrshire Council and Zero Waste Scotland – expands on the findings of an interim report earlier this year in response to the urgency of the Covid and climate crises. Highlighting opportunities for innovation to underpin Scotland’s transition to net-zero, the new report recommends actions in seven key areas – industry, energy, connectivity, place, people, finance, and nature. It says investment in biotechnology innovation, including the transformation of Grangemouth into a biorefinery, will help create new jobs and decarbonise fuels for heating, transport, and industry.
37,500 small businesses in the North West might not make it to Spring
New analysis of official data reveals an estimated more than 37,500 small businesses in the North West are worried they won’t survive the next three months. More than 50,000 small businesses have seen turnover plummet by more than half – even before the second national lockdown was imposed. Labour has also revealed that it is estimated more than 100,000 small businesses in the North West do not have cash reserves to last beyond three months. Yet the vast majority of businesses required to close have received much smaller grants from government than they did during the first lockdown – with most receiving either just a third or half of what they received in March. The party estimates this could mean the 5,420 hairdressers and beauty salons, 865 hotels and B&Bs, 585 butchers, 80 toy shops, 225 greengrocers, 90 bookshops, 3,510 pubs and bars, 380 bakeries, 215 breweries and distilleries, and 330 automotive manufacturers are at risk in communities across the North West.
https://aboutmanchester.co.uk/37500-small-businesses-in-the-north-west-might-not-make-it-to-spring/