Ocado relocates

“Leaving the EU has had a significant effect on trade,” Murphy said, claiming that the UK was experiencing “by far” the weakest recov‐ery from the pandemic compared with other major economies.

A group of business lead‐ers has now called for the reintroduction of tax‐free shopping for overseas tourists.

In a letter to the UK’s Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, retail, hospitality and tourism chiefs maintained that reinstating the VAT concession would benefit both businesses and the taxpayer.

Tax‐free shopping would bring a multi‐billion‐pound boost to the economy, they argued.

“The cost of 20 per cent VAT refunds would be out‐weighed by the enormous benefits of encouraging more visitors to Britain,” they said.

IN a move that will affect ap‐proximately 2,300 employ‐ees, Ocado plans to close its oldest distribution centre in Hatfield (Hertfordshire) later this year.

This centre accounts for a fifth of the online grocer’s weekly customer orders each week, but sources ex‐plained that Ocado now in‐tends to shift towards robot‐ic warehouses, transferring to a new state ‐ of ‐ the ‐ art warehouse in Luton.

Logo no-go

LIDL won its legal standoff against Tesco.

A High Court judge found in favour of the German‐owned chain which accused Tesco of “riding on its coat tails” by pro‐moting its Clubcard deals with a similar blue and yellow logo.

Mrs Justice Joanna Smith made the ruling late last month after an earlier hearing between the two supermarket giants.

Euro

EUR/GBP: Unchanged at £0.88

EUR/USD: Up from $1.07 to $1.09

Easing concerns over Europe’s banking sector initially helped the euro to firm at end of March, before these gains were swiftly eased by a weaker-than-expected Eurozone inflation print.

Hawkish comments from a European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker, put a spring back in the single currency’s step at the start of April, before rally sputtered out in the face of fresh tensions between Russia and Europe as Finland formally joined NATO.

The euro continued to waver into mid-April as a disappointing Eurozone retail sales reading was offset and the single currency’s negative correlation with the US dollar infused volatility into EUR exchange rates.

A stronger-than-expected Eurozone services PMI then lent support to the euro toward the end of April.

While the ECB’s next interest rate