NEWS SPECIAL
COVID-19 UPDATE FOR ALL THE LATEST CORONAVIRUS NEWS, HEAD TO WWW.SLRMAG.CO.UK/CATEGORY/NEWS/
TELEGRAPH REPAYS FURLOUGH CASH Telegraph Media Group has decided to return all the furlough money it received from the Government after remaining profitable during the worst months of the coronavirus crisis. The publisher furloughed 90
SCOTTISH BUSINESS GRANT WITHDRAWN SCOTLAND’S FINANCE SECRETARY KATE FORBES ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY THAT THE SMALL BUSINESS GRANT AND RETAIL, HOSPITALITY AND LEISURE GRANT SCHEMES WILL CLOSE FOR NEW APPLICATIONS ON 10 JULY.
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Sunday.
he Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes MSP confirmed yesterday that the Small Business Grant and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant schemes will close for new applications on 10 July. Up to 2 June, £824.5m had been distributed to 72,622 businesses across Scotland through the schemes. Forbes commented: “New applications have slowed in recent weeks as large numbers of businesses have already applied. We are
SGF LAUNCHES HARDSHIP FUND
CONVENIENCE ‘GROWS 42.5% IN MAY’
non-editorial workers and put all remaining non-editorial staff on four-day weeks from 1 May and cut salaries by 20%.
ALDI FACE MASKS Aldi has been criticised for starting to sell non-medical grade face masks in twopacks. The lines went on sale last week and were included in the online ‘Specialbuy’ on
The Scottish Grocers’ Federation has established a Covid-19 Hardship Fund to offer assistance to those suffering financially due to the crisis. The fund is being organised through the SGF Benevolent Fund and the organisation is seeking donations. For further information, email Marion Smith at marion@sgfscot. co.uk.
8 I SLRMAG.CO.UK / ISSUE 8 / WEDNESDAY 10TH JUNE 2020
Consumer spending contracted 26.7% year-on-year in May, but spend in convenience stores continued to remain extremely buoyant, according to the latest Barclaycard report which combines hundreds of millions of customer transactions with consumer research. Spending in specialist food and drink outlets such as independent convenience stores grew by 42.5% while supermarket spend grew by 24.5%.
committed to ensuring every penny we receive from the UK Government for business support - and more – will be passed to businesses. It is essential that we do not allow funds to sit for too long in schemes that are attracting few applications, so we have decided to bring these to a close next month. That will mean that any remaining money can be re-routed to help businesses in other ways, as we have already started to do for the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund.”
Eating and drinking out of home saw an overall decline of 70.3% yearon-year, a slightly less dramatic fall than in April. This was thanks largely to more restaurants, pubs and cafés offering delivery and takeaway services. Some 14% of Brits are now buying food and drinks from a pub, and 10% are purchasing takeaway coffee. The figures sit in stark contrast to sales of fuel, however. These plummeted by 49.7%.