Thomas Cook buyout, Pizza Express, Mercedes-Benz: your commercial news round-up
updated on 10 October 2019
As Parliament prepares itself for a special sitting to decide the future of Brexit next Saturday 19 October, and leaked phone calls report German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying “nein” to the current Johnson deal, cast your minds towards the business world which has faced as much turbulence as the political one recently. Here’s our summary of the must-know commercial stories from this week:
- It was unexpectedly good news for Thomas Cook employees this week as independent travel agent Hays Travel announced that it had bought all 555 Thomas Cook shops, saving potentially up to 2,500 jobs. It’s a big step-up for Sunderland-based Hays Travel which currently operates out of 190 shops, but a distinct nod to the idea that there is still demand for customers to purchase holidays in person, rather than over the Internet. Many shops will reopen this week with skeleton staff until the rebranded company is up and running.
- The outlook for restaurant chain Pizza Express is not looking rosy after it was revealed that financial advisers have been brought in to review its £1 billion debt pile which costs the company £93 million a year in interest. The news was not met with surprise, as many people acknowledged that the high street chain has been falling out of the public’s heart for several years now. Cue comparisons to cheaper, more modern pizza chains, and plenty of people cracking the same calzone joke on Twitter.
- Following its coverage of the World Athletics Championships in Doha this month, the BBC has secured the rights to the 2021 and 2023 IAAF Championships taking place in the US and Budapest. The move means that coverage will remain free for viewers.
- German luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz is boasting a record third quarter for sales this year, after 181,233 cars were sold in China during the period – a 13% increase on last year. The figures are welcome news for the brand’s parent company Daimler which suffered a €1.6 billion loss in the second quarter of this year.
- The chief executive of Tesco, David Lewis, is to step down next year, after leading the supermarket’s successful turnaround plans over the past five years. It is a move that has surprised financial analysts, but Lewis says that the decision is “personal”. Ken Murphy, who is known for climbing the ranks at Boots UK, will be taking over from Lewis next summer.
Be sure to check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Follow @LawCareersNetUK on Twitter and like us on Facebook for instant business news updates.
