‘It’s a massive frustration’: UK steelmakers squeezed by Trump tariff turbulence

Sailors crossing the Atlantic in March are used to dealing with rough seas. But when two shipments of steel from Marcegaglia Stainless Sheffield were slowed up in crossing the ocean by storms this week it meant more than a few days’ extra journey: the metal was caught up in the global trade war started by the US president, Donald Trump, as well.“Obviously, it’s a massive frustration,” says Liam Bates, the president of long products at the Italian steelmaker’s northern England operation. The company had hoped to rush through two weekly shipments in order to avoid the Wednesday deadline for Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium. Instead, it will have to bear the costs – or hope for grace from the US government

John Lewis profits triple to £126m but hopes for staff bonus dashed again

The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose has tripled its annual profits but workers at the staff-owned retail group have missed out on a bonus for a third year in a row.The John Lewis Partnership said group sales rose 3% to £12.8bn in the 12 months to 25 January 2025, as underlying profit rose from £42m to £126m and sales growth picked up through December and January.However, the company said it was prioritising investment over the bonus with plans to spend £600m on new Waitrose stores, more technology, revamping beauty halls in its Solihull, Bluewater and Liverpool department stores and improvements in its supply network.Jason Tarry, the chair of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “These are solid results, which show that our customers are responding well to our investments in quality products, value and service

Deliveroo makes annual profit for first time

Deliveroo has made an annual profit for the first time, after a bumpy few years since a disastrous stock market listing that earned the takeaway delivery company the nickname “flopperoo”.The 12-year-old company, a member of the FTSE 250 index of mid-sized companies, made a profit of £3m in 2024, compared with a loss of £32m in 2023, it said in a statement on Thursday.The profit came alongside its first year of cash generation, after years of losing hundreds of millions of pounds as the company expanded from a startup to becoming a rare technology company to float on the London Stock Exchange in 2021.Deliveroo said the annual profit came despite an “uncertain consumer environment”, as it pushed beyond takeaways to grocery deliveries, which accounted for 16% of sales in the second half of the year. Its share price fell 8% after analysts flagged “soft” expectations for future profits

Nearly one in four Britons have witnessed shoplifting, study shows

Nearly a quarter of Britons have witnessed shoplifting in the past year and seen physical or verbal abuse of shop workers as criminals become “bolder and more aggressive”.A survey carried out for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) by the market research firm Opinium found Nottingham to be a UK hotspot for retail crime where 32% of residents said they had witnessed shoplifting. London was close behind on 29%.Southampton, Leeds and Manchester were all above the national average, while Liverpool, Brighton and Sheffield witnessed less shop theft than other major cities during the year.On average, 24% of respondents to a survey of 2,000 people had witnessed shoplifting and 23% had witnessed the physical or verbal abuse of shop workers

Trump’s senseless tariffs will extend the economic malaise felt by so many in Australia – and around the world | Nicki Hutley

Earlier this month, outgoing Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau called US president Donald Trump’s tariffs “very dumb”. Given the large hit to share markets this week in response to the escalating prospect of all-out trade wars and recession, some might say Trudeau’s comment was an understatement.Because the truth is, while much of the early economic analysis of the potential impact of tariffs has focused on country-level inflation and growth, the story is much more complicated, and the ripple effects are already travelling far and wide.In its latest Statement on Monetary Policy, the Reserve Bank of Australia had a fairly optimistic view of the likely economic impact on Australia of Trump’s tariffs, expecting growth to be shaved by only the narrowest of margins over the next two years, although admitting there were downside risks. We don’t yet know just how many more exports may be in the firing line

UK drops down list of affluent nations after decade of stagnation, NIESR finds

The UK has tumbled down the league of affluent nations after almost a decade of welfare cuts and stagnant incomes, according to a report that found the poorest districts in Britain now rank below the lowest-income areas of Malta and Slovenia.In a warning for ministers to protect welfare spending before Rachel Reeves’s spring statement later this month, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the UK’s reputation for high living standards was under threat.Districts in Birmingham were ranked as the poorest in the UK, according to the study, and below the poorest areas of Finland, France, Malta and Slovenia, it found.Between 2020 and 2023, a combination of welfare cuts and near-zero real income growth meant the bottom 10% of earners in the West Midlands saw their living standards fall below the level in parts of Slovenia, researchers said.“UK regional income growth has been among the slowest in Europe, whilst real incomes in the majority of European regions have grown at a faster rate than those in UK,” the report said