Commercial news round-up: Unilever, BrewDog, Toshiba, recruitment woes
updated on 13 April 2017
The four-day weekend looms and while it's hard to imagine doing anything much other than gorging on chocolate and hot cross buns, it's also an opportunity to catch up on some light reading. We suggest that you start with this handful of commercially-driven news stories from the past week:
- Margarine is on the way out, as butter reigns supreme; Unilever is looking to sell off its Flora and Stork brands, which form part of its “spreads business” that is valued at a gluttonous £6 billion.
- Edinburgh-based, craft beer pioneer BrewDog is now worth a boozy £1 billion, having sold off 22% of the company to TSG Consumer Partners for £213 million. Friends and founders James Watt and Martin Dickie are said to have each made £100 million from the deal.
- Toshiba’s future as a tech giant is said to be in peril as it has taken the unprecedented step of releasing its unaudited accounts for 2016, revealing a £3.8 billion loss from April to December. An accounting scandal in 2015 coupled with financial trouble for its US nuclear unit, Westinghouse, are said to be at the root of its problems.
- The British Chambers of Commerce has conducted a survey of over 7,300 UK businesses revealing that despite being keen to hire more staff, 74% of manufacturing firms and 58% of services firms are struggling to recruit the right people. Reasons for this paucity include the need to cut costs and an aging population.
Be sure to check the News section every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Follow @LawCareersNetUK on Twitter and like us on Facebook for instant business news updates.
