UK competition watchdog begins initial probe into Boeing-Spirit Aero deal
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had said last week that it was weighing a probe into whether the deal could affect competition in the country or in other markets.
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The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
City's oldest shop set to shut after 160 YEARS within weeks as shoppers mourn ‘terrible loss'
AN English city's oldest shop is set to pull the shutters down for the final time in weeks. WH Mogford & Son, a hardware shop in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, has been serving the community since the 1860s. However, the shop will close permanently this September. Owner Paul Gillam, who has worked there for 30 years, said soaring costs have made it impossible to keep the business running. In a post on Facebook, he said: "After 30 years in the business and knowing it's long history, sadly I have come to a very difficult decision to close the business permanently by the end of September 2025. "I have come to this decision due to the continuing decline in customer numbers, the increasing costs of stock, staffing, bank and utility charges and the desperate state of repair of the rented premises. "I would like to thank the many local customers who have support us over the years." Reacting to the news, one shopper said: "Very sorry to hear this. Have known the shop my entire life." Another added: "A huge loss to the village, you will be very much missed. "My sons call your shop 'the shop that sells everything." A third said: "That's terrible loss to the village." It comes as shops across the country struggle to survive in the changing consumer landscape. Both chain stores and independents have closed at an alarming rate, citing decreased footfall and rising prices as the reason behind the closures. Popular bank with over 400 spots confirms it is shutting 18 branches in August – it follows 148 closures by rivals Retail sector struggles The retail sector has struggled in recent years because of the rise of online shopping, lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic and decreased customer spending. Earlier this summer, the owners of Poundland confirmed they would shut 68 stores with 82 more at risk. Both Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop are also shutting branches as part of restructuring efforts. Higher inflation since 2022 has hit shoppers' budgets while businesses have struggled with higher wage, tax and energy costs. The Centre for Retail Research has described the sector as going through a "permacrisis" since the 2008 financial crash. Figures from the Centre also show 34 retail companies operating multiple stores stopped trading in 2024, leading to the closure of 7,537 shops. RETAIL PAIN IN 2025 The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year. It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025." Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector. "By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
BBC News
24 minutes ago
- BBC News
Historic Swindon railway pub gets £250,000 grant for revamp
A preservation group has secured a £250,000 National Lottery grant to continue restoring a historic former funding will go towards Swindon Heritage Preservation's renovations of the ground floor of the Grade II listed Cricketers building in the Wiltshire town, for community use. The Cricketers, constructed in 1846 in Swindon's railway village, was a pub for Great Western Railway workers from 1859. It continued life as a pub until its closure in McLeod from the National Lottery Heritage Fund said the project "marks an important step" towards "unlocking its potential as a vibrant community space". The preservation group has already carried out work on the building's lounge, basement, utilities and structural integrity, and part of the ground floor is already open for hire.A visitor centre and workshop spaces are being considered for the building. Chairman of Swindon Heritage Preservation, Bob Wright, said the group was "delighted" to be given the funding. He said the group was "championing Swindon's rich heritage and delivering opportunities for community empowerment and cultural pride".Mr McLeod said he was "proud" to support the project."Thanks to National Lottery players, this funding will help bring new life to this historic building and create lasting opportunities for learning, connection, and pride in local heritage," he said.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘A lot of money to be made': Paris hit with spate of €1m handbag heists
A series of million euro robberies of luxury handbags from boutiques and brand headquarters in Paris has shown that high-value leather goods are now a bigger target for organised criminals than jewels or cash, as French police pursue sophisticated gangs targeting designer bags. Paris has seen several high-profile robberies of handbags over the past year, fuelled by the growing global demand for designer leather goods which are increasingly being displayed by influencers on social media. As designer handbags sell for record prices at auction – with the late singer Jane Birkin's Hermès bag fetching €8.6m (£7.4m) this summer — prices are rising in boutiques and second-hand bags are gaining value as collectors' items. Jérôme Lalande, an expert on leather goods at the Paris appeals court, said demand for designer handbags was currently so high that the second-hand market was flourishing, making bags very easy to sell on. 'There's a lot of money to be made,' he said. 'Handbags have come to represent social status.' Last month, the Paris showroom of Houlux, a broker of second-hand designer bags that sells by appointment only, was robbed in a dawn raid. Burglars climbed up to a fourth-floor balcony and in less than 20 minutes took more than a hundred luxury bags by brands including Hermès, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, estimated to be worth a total of €1m. A few days later, the offices of the luxury brand Louis Vuitton in central Paris were broken into just after midnight by two masked men who broke down an inside door and took a large number of bags, reported to have been worth more than €1m. In May, a large number of handbags were stolen from a Louis Vuitton boutique on Paris's Boulevard Saint-Germain after a car was ram-raided into the shopfront in the early hours of the morning, allowing the robbers to enter the store and clear the shelves. It was the third such ram-raid on the boutique in only nine months. In November, neighbours had filmed a car drive into the same shop in the early hours of the morning as robbers dressed in black calmly loaded up scores of luxury bags before speeding off. Pascal Carreau, the head of the Organised Crime Unit of Paris's judicial police, said handbags were one of the last remaining high-value objects that gangs can target in Paris. 'Historically, before the explosion of drugs, French criminals, and particularly Parisian criminals, carried out armed robberies of banks, which in the 1970s had almost no protection at all.' But now with banks well-secured and less cash in circulation in society, patterns have changed. He said: 'The teams of criminals who have not moved on to cybercrime are looking to target physical objects of value on the market. And all that is left are jewels or luxury leather goods.' In January, an employee carrying out a stock inventory in central Paris for LVMH, the conglomerate that owns Louis Vuitton and many other luxury brands, discovered 50 handbags by the label Loewe, worth about €100,000, were missing. Examination of CCTV footage showed two suspects had entered the building one night before Christmas and exited carrying six large sacks believed to contain the bags. Last year, a Chanel shop on Avenue Montaigne in central Paris was ram-raided by a car and robbers escaped with bags worth between €500,000 and €1m. In 2024, an influencer who specialised in luxury handbags and posted photographs of herself posing with her bags in Paris locations, saw her home targeted by thieves who stole items including bags worth between €20,000 and €30,000. Earlier this year, Paris criminality returned to global headlines when a group of men who in 2016 robbed the US reality TV star Kim Kardashian of her jewellery, including a £3m 18.88-carat diamond engagement ring from her then husband Kanye West, were found guilty after a high-profile trial. But Carreau said jewellery heists in Paris had dropped significantly to one or two each year because high-value jewellery pieces, which were often unique 'works of art', were hard to resell on the blackmarket. He said luxury bags, on the other hand, were easier to sell on. 'The resale is happening on second-hand sales sites. Some of the bags are transported abroad and sold the same way across Europe,' he said. This was fuelled by the growing trend for acquiring luxury bags spreading across different levels of society and becoming much more commonplace, Carreau said. 'Forty years ago these bags were marginal, now the fashion for luxury is much more widespread.' The first six months of 2025 showed a marked drop in crime in general in Paris compared with the previous year: armed robberies were down by more than 9%, burglaries by 15% and theft of cars and motorbikes by 14%. Carreau said that raids on expensive handbag boutiques were not a daily occurrence in Paris but they had a spectacular impact because sometimes videos by onlookers who witnessed events had circulated on social media. Lalande, the appeals court expert, said: 'A classic Chanel bag that was €5,000 in a boutique five years ago can now cost €10,000 in a boutique. So alongside those shop prices, the second-hand prices have also risen … There is a global demand – from Beijing to Dubai, New York to Paris and London.' Lalande said bags were relatively easy to re-sell because they couldn't be traced as easily as watches or jewels. He had seen a shift in criminals' focus on bags over the past 25 years. 'Twenty years ago, I was contacted because a [Hermès] crocodile Kelly bag was stolen from a woman in Paris. The bag was later found in a bin with her wallet that had been emptied. Years ago, a bag would be stolen for its contents. Today the target is the bag itself.'
