Business news in brief
Facebook makes £1m donation to Bletchley Park
Facebook has made a £1m donation to Bletchley Park to support its work for the next two years after the charity and museum said it had lost 95 per cent of its income because of the coronavirus pandemic. The social network said the donation was in recognition of the Buckinghamshire country’s house’s legacy as a birthplace of modern computing. Bletchley Park was the base for codebreakers during the Second World War, who helped decrypt communications from Nazi Germany using the first large-scale digital computers. Today, the Bletchley Park Trust is a registered charity, heritage attraction and independent museum with the aim of educating visitors on the site’s legacy, and also runs learning programmes around coding. PA
Microsoft ‘rings alarm bell’ after half of firms report turnover slip
Microsoft has said it is “ringing the alarm bell” after it said almost half of companies are struggling to remain competitive amid the shock of Covid-19 and Brexit uncertainty. New research by the tech firm, alongside academics at Goldsmiths, University of London, showed that 46 per cent of UK companies have seen turnover slide by at least 5 per cent this year. It warned that this group of companies are “financially vulnerable and not prepared to face the future”, calling for them to speed up the integration of new technology. The research found that more than 54 per cent of UK organisations surveyed have seen a decrease in revenue this year compared to last year, with 22 per cent experiencing a drop greater than 15 per cent. PA
Cake Box sales bounce back after lockown closures
Cream cake retailer Cake Box has hailed “strong momentum” as it reported higher like-for-like sales after reopening stores. The high street business said like-for-like sales jumped 12.1 per cent in the 20 weeks to 30 September after it welcomed customers to its stores again. Shares in the company lifted on Monday after it said it was confident the momentum will continue through the second half of the financial year. Cake Box reported £8.6m in total revenues for the half-year to the end of September, dipping slightly from £8.8m in the same period last year after it was impacted by six weeks of closures at the start of the latest half-year. PA
Eddie Stobart returns to profit following accounting scandal
The owner of trucking business Eddie Stobart has returned to profitability and put an accounting scandal that rocked the business behind it, the company said. GreenWhiteStar Acquisitions (GWSA), the holding company of Eddie Stobart, said the haulier had benefited from the pandemic as demand from customers increased. The business added that it has left old loss-making contracts and signed new ones – most recently announcing a deal to shuttle products between Morrisons’ distribution centres and stores. Other wins include Hillebrand and McBride in the UK, with Nike and Amazon using the services of its EU business, it added. PA
Cash deposits at Post Office branches recover to pre-lockdown levels
Some £2bn-worth of cash deposits were made by individuals and businesses at the Post Office in September – marking the first time since lockdown that the total has been higher than the equivalent month in 2019. The value of cash deposits in September was higher than any month so far this year, the Post Office said. Cash deposits by business and personal customers at Post Office branches in September were up by 7.7 per cent on the same month last year. It was the first time since February, before the coronavirus lockdown started, that cash deposits by business and personal customers had exceeded the equivalent month in 2019. PA