UK Business Spent £3.1bn On Environmental Protection

The total spend of UK businesses on environmental protection in 2012 was estimated to have been £3,159m according to data from Defra. Operational expenditure accounted for the majority of the expenditure with £2,492m followed by capital expenditure with £517m and research and development with £150m. The aim of environmental protection expenditure is to reduce environmental pollution during operations.

The main industries involved in the expenditure were energy production and distribution with 18% and food and drink with 13%. Spending per employee was highest in the water supply and treatment industry and also in energy production and distribution.

Thorntons Transformation Continues But Consumer Confidence A Worry

Thorntons strategy is continuing to deliver and is maintaining momentum. The transformation has seen overall sales revenue increase by 4.5% to £139.7m with both the FMCG and the retail divisions performing well. FMCG is now the largest division by revenues and will be for full year 2014. Pre-tax profits and exceptional items went up 47.3% to £7.2m. It is the third consecutive half of improved profits and assets.

The brand is still very strong with high spontaneous awareness and outperforms other mass premium brands. Thorntons remains the highest gift purchase consideration in the chocolate category with 67% and maintains its strong market share. Customer satisfaction levels remain high.

Investments in working capital and capital expenditure have helped reduce short-term cash flow and the trend is expected to continue for the next two or three years. The gearing ratio has been reduced by continued increase in net assets. Net assets improved for the third consecutive financial half and net debt growing at a lower ratio helped reduce gearing. The focus is on restoring the financial health of the business but these encouraging results show that the strategy is right and is delivering improvements in financial performance.

Thorntons is based on a 65 acre site at Alfreton in Derbyshire, with state of the art manufacturing facilities covering 30,000sqm producing 35,000 tonnes of chocolate per annum. It has over 2000 employees, 1100 of which are permanent. The staff turnover is very low. They are highly skilled staff with an average of 10 years experience. Thorntons has a 'World Class' manufacturing capability but they realize the importamnce of having a strong customer focus.

Thorntons intend to maintain their strategic direction of 'rebalance, revitalise and restore'. The chocolate market will continue to grow and remains competitive. There are new products to be launched for the key seasonal markets of Easter but a lack of consumer confidence remains a worry so the future will be approached with some caution.

Better Performance Than Expected On The High Street

Retail sales outperformed expectations for January according to the CBI distributive trades survey for February. The survey also revealed that although inflation has increased job losses have slowed down. Investment intentions have also improved.

The majority of respondents said their volumes were up in February with a marked improvement on January's survey results and beat their expectations. Orders improved in line with sales volumes. Retailers also expect further growth in sales and orders next month. Stock adequacy remains low.

The busines situation is expected to be fairly stable over the next three months. The job situation seems to be easing with the balance of businesses cutting back on staff expected to be the same in the next quarter. Annual capital expenditure in the next year is expected to remain about the same as in 2009.

Prices rose steeply in February but they probably reflect the changes in VAT coming in at the beginning of 2010. Clothing and grocers had a good month. Durables, furniture and carpets also did well. Among those that didn't do so well were hardware, china and DIY. Wholesalers did quite well but motor trades sale volumes fell and are expecting a further fall over the next quarter. The next quarter is expected to get worse, by a slight majority, and employment is expected to remain stable.