Your commercial news round-up: Colin the Caterpillar, Amazon, Alton Towers, Bank of England

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With only 10 days until V-day, are you still feeling the love for our commercial news round-ups? We sure hope so!

In this week’s commercial news, we finally see the end to the adventures of Cuthbert the Caterpillar, celebrate Amazon’s new recruitment plan, welcome Alton Towers’ decision to take over Cadbury World and learn of the Bank of England's new interest rates.

• Who remembers the iconic cake row between M&S and Aldi? The dispute has now been settled as the two parties reached a consensus over the intellectual property rights of M&S’s Colin the Caterpillar cake. The two grocers initially butted heads in April last year when Aldi sold its ‘Cuthbert the Caterpillar’ birthday cake which looked similar to M&S’s trademark cake, ‘Colin the Caterpillar’. This sparked a trademark legal battle which was only resolved out of court last November. This trademark fight has inspired other businesses to seek action against those who may have copied their design ideas.
   
• It’s a good year for school leavers as Amazon announced 1,500 apprenticeship vacancies. The retail giant revealed its workforce had snowballed to 70,000 in 2021. In addition to offering apprenticeships, it will also provide 40 entry- to degree-level apprenticeship schemes in publishing, retailing, marketing and even has a programme specifically for environmental, social and corporate governance. There’s no stopping Amazon, the tech company also recently revealed plans to open its first US clothing store with a tech twist.
   
• Alton Towers owner, Merlin Entertainments, will acquire the operations and brand licenses of Cadbury World in a 50-year-deal. This acquisition will increase the amount of chocolate bars the Bournville factory makes, as part of its £15 million investment plan. Merlin, Europe’s biggest theme park firm, whose portfolio includes Peppa Pig World, will take on 150 of Cadbury’s employees to bring the “history and heritage” of the brand and share the “joy of chocolate.” Cadbury is admired as the nation’s favourite chocolate, with bestsellers including Cadbury Dairy Milk and Mars Bar, so it will be an exciting takeover. 
   
• In banking news, the Bank of England (BoE) has raised its interest rate to 0.5% as a result of the inflation strain. This is the bank’s first interest rate rise since 2004, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time with the economy still struggling to recover from the pandemic and the deepening cost of living. Inflation is rumoured to increase to 7.25% in April. The BoE officials said: “This would be the biggest annual reduction in spending power since at least 1990.” The people of Britain must brace themselves because the higher the inflation rate, the more interest rates are likely to increase.

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