Industry news

The Cooperative Group sold its remaining stake in the Coop bank today, removing itself completely from the business. The Cooperative Groups stake in the bank has been cut down dramatically in the past month from 20% to nothing as part of a restructure of the business. Underlying profit at the bank has fallen by half from last year as the US hedge fund that bought a majority stake in the bank tries to turn it around by 2020. Sales at Coop food increased by 3.5%, with convenience stores doing well in particular, rumours persist of a potential buyout of food stores owned by Nisa with the proceeds.

More news from sourcingfocus: UK Retail Growth Continues Long Upward Trend

The City UK, an influential trade body for the financial industry in the UK has warned about the unpredictability of Brexit and is hoping for a transition period with the European Union. Gerard Lyons, an economist and former Brexit campaigner is also arguing for a transition period. The City UK has highlighted the danger of Brexit on the financial industry and how the UK may lose its dominant position. Around 10,000 jobs in finance are expected to leave the UK in the coming years according to a Reuters survey. "For our industry, this really is crunch time." said City UK chief executive Miles Celic.

More news from sourcingfocus: UK Rates to Rise Soon

Alphabet Incorporated's Google said it would bay over one billion dollars for a division of HTC, moving Google forward in the smartphone market. This is not the first foray into the market for Google, whose failed purchase of Motorola raised eyebrows a few years ago. Questions are already being asked by analysts over the decline of HTC over the past 5 years. As part of the deal, Google gains about 2,000 employees and intellectual property rights.

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BMW have launched their second tech start-up programme in the UK at its headquarters in Farnborough. The programme is looking for five start-ups to improve multi-platform retail process, improve business process through automation, develop software for a pay to use system and regulatory technology. Jonny Combe, General Manager of product and channel development at BMW financial services in the UK said the programme helps keep BMW up to speed with industry change. Four of the five previous start-ups continue to work with BMW, insurtech provider Wrisk, online marketplace Drover, cloud based payment provider Divido and data analytics firm Cazana.

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Outsourcing firm Capita has seen profits rise in the past six months but revenues declined, worrying investors. The major contract win rate for Capita has increased from one in three to one in two as the company continues its restructure programme. Nick Greatorex, interim CEO of Capita said "We remain confident that these actions (the restructure) are making Capita a simpler business, well positioned for the future under new leadership."

More news from sourcingfocus: Middle East Must Address IT Staff Shortfall

UK online retail sales were up +16.4% year-on-year (YoY) in August, according to the latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. This makes August the best month for online retail growth so far in 2017. The Home sector had a particularly strong August, with 20.5% year-on-year growth and an average basket value (ABV) of £130. Clothing also showed good growth at 17.9%, the best performance for this sector in 2017, and with an ABV up £9 on August 2016. These sectors both contributed to the highest overall ABV for the month of August in five years. All this comes despite August inflation of 2.9%, and the reported 2.4% rise in the price of clothing, which has evidently not served to deter fashion shoppers yet. On the other hand, the August results painted a very different picture for Electricals, which suffered its fifth consecutive month of negative growth – the longest sustained period of negative growth for this sector since we started tracking it in 2003.

More news from sourcingfocus: UK Rates to Rise Soon

Business process outsourcing company ADV Communications Limited, a joint venture between ICD Group and Advantage Communications Inc of Canada, plans to increase its number of jobs by 500 by the end of next year. It would double the 500 jobs that Advantage currently has in operation to 1,000 and expand the company's footprint in Jamaica. "Our expansion has been fuelled by organic growth from existing customers as well as the acquisition of new customers, mostly from the US/Canada," said ICD President and CEO Peter Melhado on Monday.

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Retail sales grew by 1% in the month of August according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) with strong growth in clothes and non-essential items. This is the 52nd month of rises, indicating the continued progress of the UK economy after the financial crash of 2008. The ONS warned however that growth in food sales was flat and the contribution of petrol stations decreased, these could be early indications that growth is beginning to subside.

More news from sourcingfocus: Online Retail Shows Healthy Growth Despite Inflation

The Federation of Small Businesses has released figures from its survey of 1230 of its members indicating that 13% of respondents were looking for a way out of business, the highest rate since 2012. Optimism is tumbling for small businesses due to rising costs and a more uncertain economic climate. "Rent and taxation are frequently mentioned as causes of increased cost, we need to see more support in this space" said Mike Cherry, FSB National Chairman. The survey did note that exporters were more cheerful as the weak pound encouraged more demand abroad and that many small businesses were looking to add more staff.

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A survey by ComputerWeekly finds that Middle Eastern economies need to offer more training and employ fore women to deal with potentially crippling IT staff shortages. 63% of staff in a recent study of IT professionals in the region indicated that they believe they need more training while nearly three quarters said a lack of training was holding them back. The UAE is suffering from an IT staff shortage due to the growing tech market in the country according to the Dubai Chamber of commerce and industry.

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