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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
LIVING WAGE UP TO £9.50
THE LIVING WAGE FOUNDATION HAS ANNOUNCED A NEW RATE OF £9.50 PER HOUR FOR THE ‘REAL’ LIVING WAGE.
The 20p rise means the rate is now 78p more than the Government’s National Living Wage, which is currently £8.72 for those aged 25 and over. A lower rate applies for younger workers.
Usdaw General Secretary Paddy Lillis welcomed the increase in Living Wage rates but called for at least £10 per hour for workers of all ages. He said the new rate “clearly shows that the Government’s so-called ‘National Living Wage’ is nothing of the sort.
“We are expecting the Low Pay Commission to announce their recommendations for next year’s minimum wage rates anytime soon and we hope they will follow the example of the Living wage Foundation. Usdaw is calling for a rise in line with the commitment to two-thirds of median earnings, which should be seen as the minimum required to recognise the outstanding contributions of our key workers.”
ONLINE HFSS AD BAN CONSULTATION KICKS OFF
THE UK GOVERNMENT HAS LAUNCHED A CONSULTATION ONPROPOSALS TO COMPLETELY BAN ONLINE ADVERTS FOR FOODSHIGH IN FAT, SUGAR AND SALT (HFSS).
The consultation will run for six weeks and will collect views from industry stakeholders and the public to help the government understand the impact and challenges of introducing a total ban on advertising HFSS products online.
Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “I am determined to help parents, children and families in the UK make healthier choices about what they eat. We know as children spend more time online, parents want to be reassured they are not being exposed to adverts promoting unhealthy foods, which can affect eating habits for life.”
RETAILERS SCOOP £20K WITH LOTTERY
A total of 11 National Lottery retailers scooped £20k between them in the first quarterly prize draw of Camelot’s new-look retailer rewards programme, ‘Site, Stock, Sell Online’.
As well as the usual £10k quarterly prize for one lucky retailer, Camelot added a further 10 separate £1k prizes to increase the number of retailers who can win big in each draw – making a difference to smaller shops, in particular, during the current challenging circumstances.
This big winner this time around was Ali Irtiza (pictured), owner of East End Convenience Store in Paisley, who collected £10k.
EROS ADDS CROSSFORD STORE
Eros Retail has snapped up another store in Fife, a former Co-op in Crossford near Dunfermline. The store will trade under Eros Retail’s Greens banner, with Greens of Crossford opening its doors to customers for the first time next week.
Sitting on the village’s Main Street, the store had been a Co-op since 2012 after the company bought the David Sands chain. The store’s existing team will keep their jobs and, since Greens is serviced by Nisa, Co-op brands will remain on shelves. Locally sourced additions to the offer include products from Wicked Cheesecake and
Breadwinner. A Fisher & Donaldson bakery concession will be introduced as part of an overhaul of the store, which will also see investment in energy saving technology.
Eros boss and former SLR Retailer of the Year Harris Aslam said: “We are thrilled to be opening three new Greens stores in Fife in November and look forward to working very closely with store teams, customers and local suppliers to retain the strong performing elements of the existing stores whilst introducing lots of exciting new products and concessions.”
BRUSH WITH SUCCESS
An eight-year-old girl fromBlantyre has been named thewinner of Spar Scotland’s firstever lorry design competition.Alisha Razzaq fromBlantyre will see her designemblazoned on a Spar wagonand also received a goody bagand a framed image of herwinning entry.
PAYPOINT ACQUISITIONS
PayPoint has bought twocard payments and cardterminal leasing businesses– Handepay and MerchantRentals – for £70m. Theacquisitions will create acombined national cardpayments business with acustomer base of over 30,000SMEs.
QUAIL GETS NOD
Digital headset supplier QuailDigital has been added to theAssociation of ConvenienceStores’ club of trustedsuppliers. The company’sheadsets are currently used byretailers including Aldi, Lidl andSuperdrug.
CJ LANG PROFITS
Spar Scotland wholesaler andretailer CJ Lang has reporteda rise in sales and underlyingprofits as it continues toimplement its strategy forgrowth. To the year ending 30April 2020, turnover increasedby 3.4%, to £194.2m whileunderlying pre-tax profitsdoubled to £1.5m.
SAINSBURY’S CLOSURES
Sainsbury’s is to cut 3,500 jobswith the closure of 420 Argosoutlets and all its meat, fishand deli counters. The 420standalone Argos stores willclose by March 2024, althoughSainsbury’s said it wouldopen 150 Argos outlets in itssupermarkets.
GUINNESS 0.0 RECALLED
Guinness has recalled its newnon-alcoholic stout Guinness0.0 only two weeks after itlaunched. The Dublin-basedbrewer took what it called a“precautionary measure” aftermicrobiological contaminationcould mean some productswere unsafe. It urged buyers toreturn cans to stores for a fullrefund and said it was “workinghard” to find out the cause.
