Following our look at the effect of wet-stock holdings vis-à-vis retailers’ cashflow last month, a number of retailers have taken the trouble to contact us with their own views of some of the factors that are negatively impacting on their cash and bank balances. The typical comment could be summed up as: “My [...]

Despite a few localised falls during June, in the main pump prices were still hovering around the 120.9 / 122.9 mark on many forecourts [and that ignores the premium grades selling at some 7 pence per litre extra], with little, if any, suggestion that they’d be coming down again.

In recent weeks [...]

UK Economy

The growth forecast for 2011 is revised down to 2.3% from 2.6%.
The economy is predicted to grow by 1.2% in 2010, 2.3% in 2011, 2.8% in 2012, 2.9% in 2013 and 2.7% in both 2014 and 2015.
Debt is to peak at 70% of the countries GDP in 2013/14.
Unemployment is expected to peak [...]

EKW Group recently exhibited at the ‘Manchester Forecourt Roadshow’ on the 26th May 2010, much to the reluctance of long life Chelsea fan, Neil Foster.

The event that was held at Old Trafford, home to the Premier League giants Manchester United presented a ‘goal’den opportunity to promote the Group’s services. The purpose of the exhibition is [...]

As we all knew at the time, the March 2010 Budget was likely to be out of date before the ink on it was properly dry, with the general election due just six weeks later. Now after the protracted political horse-trading following the most unusual election in nearly forty years, we face a [...]

Alistair Darling’s Budget on Wednesday 24th March may well have been his last such presentation [regardless of which party actually wins the forthcoming general election] – and is just as likely to be merely the first ‘Budget’ this year: whoever is in power after May or June will almost certainly have another go [...]

If you’re in deep water…

A recent report by corporate rescue and restructuring specialists Begbies Traynor suggests that some “140,000” UK businesses were showing “real signs of financial distress” at the end of 2009. Their prediction is that with the VAT increase at the start of this year, and the likelihood of [...]

At a time when every business is acutely conscious of employment costs; when this country [like most of Europe] has experienced relatively ‘fluid’ movement of workers seeking employment across borders, and particularly in an industry which traditionally has seen a large proportion of short-term and [let’s face it -] ‘casual’ workers, the recent [...]

As if the Christmas and New Year period wasn’t busy enough in the retail world, this year you have another job to add to your ‘to do’ list. A year ago the government announced a temporary reduction in the Standard rate of VAT from 17.5% to 15.0%, to be in place throughout [...]

As if the Christmas and New Year period wasn’t busy enough in the retail world, this year you have another job to add to your ‘to do’ list. A year ago the government announced a temporary reduction in the Standard rate of VAT from 17.5% to 15.0%, to be in place throughout [...]