‘Some steal to order’: on the frontline of UK shoplifting epidemic

UK retailers are warning that crime in their stores is “spiralling out of control” with 55,000 thefts a day and violent and abusive incidents rising by 50% last year to 2,000 a day.What is it like to be on the frontline? We speak to a supermarket worker, a security guard and an independent shopkeeper.Shoplifters have become a bit more brazen about what they do and it is not just specific things. Quite a few don’t hide it as they know staff are not allowed to stop them and some stores don’t have security staff. They come in and just cut security tags off

UK car production falls to lowest level since 1954

British car production fell in 2024 to its lowest level in seven decades – barring the coronavirus pandemic – as the industry struggles with weak demand and prepares to shift away from fossil fuels to electric vehicles.The number of cars made in the UK fell to 780,000 during the year, the lowest since 1954, except for during the pandemic when first factories were forced to close and then supply chain problems caused shortages of computer chips, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group.Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, said the decline last year was down partly to factories pausing while they switched to electric production. However, he added that the industry is still struggling with weak global demand, and slower-than-expected growth in electric car sales.In 1954, the UK car industry was dominated by the recently formed British Motor Corporation, a merger of the Morris and Austin brands

Dowlais deal shows crisis in the UK stock market is getting worse

There goes another hidden gem of the UK stock market, and the mini-tragedy in this case is that the deal ought to be structured the other way around. It should be Dowlais, the FTSE 250 company whose main business carries the grand historic UK manufacturing name of GKN Automotive, buying its US rival, the Detroit-based American Axle & Manufacturing.Instead, the transaction is a cash-and-shares offer for Dowlais at £1.16bn, or 85p a share. The terms cannot be described as punchy when you remember that the business was demerged from the FTSE 100 firm Melrose at 120p as recently as 2023

US rival agrees £1.2bn deal for British car parts firm in new hit to UK stock market

The British car parts maker Dowlais has agreed to a £1.2bn takeover by its US rival American Axle & Manufacturing, in the latest departure from the London stock market.The main operation of Dowlais, which has been listed on the FTSE 250 index since 2023, is GKN Automotive, which formed part of the GKN engineering business that was bought by the private equity group Melrose in an acrimonious £8bn takeover battle in 2018.American Axle & Manufacturing will pay £1.16bn in cash and shares for Dowlais as the two companies aim to weather the transition to electric vehicles

Supersonic prototype jet breaks sound barrier on US test flight

A US-made prototype jet has broken the sound barrier, in the first commercial venture to achieve supersonic speeds since Concorde.Boom Supersonic, a startup that seeks to build the world’s fastest airliner, flew a test flight of its fighter jet-sized XB-1 demonstrator over the Mojave desert in California on Tuesday.At an altitude of about 10,700 metres (35,000ft), the jet accelerated to Mach 1.1, or about 845 mph (1,360 km/h), faster than the speed at which sound travels.“She was real happy supersonic,” Boom’s chief test pilot, Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg, said after landing

Lloyds Banking Group to shut another 136 UK high street branches

Lloyds Banking Group has revealed plans to shut another 136 branches, weeks after a policy allowing customers to do their in-person banking across any of its three brands prompted fears that bosses could close up to a quarter of its high street sites.The move will cut the group’s branch network by a further 15%, accelerating a strong shift towards digital and mobile banking that is core to a five-year strategy being pushed by its chief executive, Charlie Nunn.It will result in the closure of 61 Lloyds-branded sites, 61 Halifax locations and 14 Bank of Scotland branches, and leave the group with 757 branches by spring next year.Lloyds said the closures reflected customer usage across those 136 branches, and on-site transactions had tumbled 48% on average – and up to 78%, in some cases – over the past five years.The decision comes weeks after the bank rolled out a new policy allowing customers to use any of its Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds branches, regardless of which lender they held accounts with