September Business Roundup
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Regional Business News
North East small businesses boosting productivity, Sage survey finds
Small businesses in the North East are seeing healthy increases in profitability and productivity despite performing below the national average, a new report says. The latest small business tracker from Newcastle software firm Sage found that average profits in the region’s smaller firms increased by 8.8% between April and June, lower than the national average of 9.5% but higher than both London and the South East.
Planning permission granted for new ￡14.7m engineering training centre in Thornaby
Major plans to bring a new ￡14.7m engineering training centre to Thornaby have been given the green light. Teesside-based NETA Training has secured planning permission to develop its new purpose-built facility beside Stockton Riverside College. The scheme is one of the flagship projects of the ￡23m Thornaby Town Deal aimed at bringing change and investment into the area.
Newcastle Airport announces best ever results and outlines big investments
Newcastle Airport has announced its best ever financial results after reporting a big rise in both revenues and profits. Accounts for the airport show that total revenues increased by 22% to ￡79.1m in 2023, while operating profit grew by 36% to stand at ￡33.9m.
Malhotra Group sees turnover rise ￡10m despite a year of challenges
North East care, leisure and property business Malhotra Group plc has unveiled a ￡10m rise in turnover despite what it described as a “challenging year for us”. The Newcastle-based firm has published accounts for the year to March 31 in which turnover rose from ￡47.1m in the previous period to ￡57.5m. Operating profit for the year remained steady at ￡10.3m, having previously come in at ￡10.4m.
Esh delivers Centre of Excellence for New College Durham
A Construction Centre of Excellence will open to students this month after Esh Construction completed a ￡1.7 million refurbishment project at Promotion House in Langley Moor. The North of England contractor has transformed an existing factory unit into a new learning space to create a specialised teaching facility for New College Durham’s trade subjects.
Petards posts steady revenues of ￡4.4m but warns full year results may fall short of expectations
Tyneside tech firm Petards has posted steady half-year revenues but warned that full year results may fall short of forecasts.
The Team Valley business is involved in developing, supplying and maintaining advanced security and surveillance technologies for the rail, traffic, defence and communications sectors. In the interim results for the six months ended June 30 the firm posted revenues of ￡4.415m, slightly up on the ￡4.403m posted in the same period last year.
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National Business News
UK wage growth slows in 3 months to July
UK wage growth slowed in the three months to July, as payroll employment and hiring weakened, official data has shown. Annual earnings growth, excluding bonuses, declined to 5.1 per cent, down from 5.4 per cent in the three months to May, the Office for National Statistics said. The figure was in line with analysts’ expectations.
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Drop in UK flu jabs warning ahead of winter
Fewer people came forward for their flu vaccine last year and if the same happens again the UK could be in for a worse winter, health officials are warning. There were at least 18,000 flu-related deaths in England over the last couple of years, despite being relatively mild flu seasons, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
UK surge in low-alcohol beer sales tops other countries
UK sales of low-alcohol beer increased more than in any other market in 2023 thanks to a post-Brexit overhaul of alcohol duties, as brewers took advantage of lower rates by launching new or revamped products.?Sales of low-strength beer with less than 3.5 per cent alcohol by volume doubled from 650,000 hectolitres in 2022 to close to 1.3mn hectolitres in 2023 after years of flat or declining performance, according to data provider IWSR.
Air fryers now the third-most used appliance in UK kitchens - and used more often than conventional ovens
Air fryers are now the third most-used appliance in UK kitchens after toasters and microwave ovens, according to an annual survey. Sales of air fryers soared as their energy-saving credentials appealed to households during the cost-of-living crisis, and they are now used more often than conventional electric or gas ovens, the Good Food Nation study found. The survey spoke to 2,003 adults, with some 58% of those asked saying they now use an air fryer, up from 46% last year, with their dominance reflected by 33% not using conventional ovens.
Quorn faces ￡63.4m loss as UK and US supermarket sales decline
Marlow Foods, the company behind the meat-free brand Quorn, has reported a loss of over ￡60m in its latest financial year as sales in UK and US supermarkets continued to decline. The North Yorkshire-based firm posted a pre-tax loss of ￡63.4m for 2023, following a loss of ￡15.4m in 2022. The last time the company reported a pre-tax profit was in 2021, with earnings of ￡7.3m, as reported by City AM.
Obesity rates in England stabilise for first time in two decades
England has begun to turn the tide on rising obesity for the first time in two decades, NHS figures reveal. The number of children who are overweight has fallen to the lowest level since 2000, while obesity rates in adults have remained stable for the past five years. The data from the annual NHS health survey indicates that a trend of gradually expanding waistlines, which has been continuing since records began in 1993, is finally levelling off.
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Number crunching
￡460 a year the amount the full state pension is expected to rise by from April 2024 (Source: The Office for National Statistics)
3.9 million the amount of people claiming sickness benefits since the pandemic (Source: NHS)
One in 30 households in the North East own a buy-to-let property, compared to one in 13 in the South East (Source: IPPR)
￡132m a week the findings of how much women in the North miss out on versus the national average (Source: Health Equity North)
14.5 per 100,000 commit suicide in the North East, compared to the national average of 11.4 (Source: The Office for National Statistics)
5.6% the rate of unemployment in the North East, up 1.4 percentage points on Feb-Apr (Source: The Office for National Statistics)