It was ‘business as usual’ as success stories were shared at the conclusion of a growth project that has supported 4,000 local firms.

The sold-out celebratory event in Leicester marked the end of a partnership project part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Delivered through the Business Gateway Growth Hub – and run by Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, East Midlands Chamber, and the LLEP – it has seen almost £6m invested in programmes and grants to develop local SMEs since 2019.

Event attendees also learned how future support will be channelled through the Growth Hub as it continues to provide guidance and signposting to available resources.

Councillor Adam Clarke, Deputy City Mayor – Climate, Economy and Culture, said: “The entrepreneurial nature of our economy is one of, if not the, city and county’s biggest strengths.

“Our business community is resilient, adaptable, and creative, and the LLEP Business Gateway Growth Hub plays an important role in supporting that.”

More than 100 delegates were at the Holiday Inn event, which was hosted by Jim Willis, Managing Director of digital agency Bulb Studios.

Presentations detailed the impact of the ERDF partnership, setting out how 4,000 businesses accessed support over the last four years, with 212 jobs created, and more than £2m in grants secured for businesses. A further £3.6m in private sector funding was also secured. 

New LLEP CEO Phoebe Dawson said that provision would continue as the Growth Hub moves into a post-ERDF phase from the end of June.

“What you can expect from the Growth Hub remains the same,” she told delegates. “It’s business as usual.

“We want to work with you and your businesses in the future, providing support and guidance to help you grow.”

Barrie Walford, Economic and Regeneration Manager at North West Leicestershire District Council, described how plans to use UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) money in the county have been submitted and approved, with several district-based programmes already in the pipeline.

And Peter Chandler, Head of Economic Regeneration at Leicester City Council, explained how the authority will continue to prioritise business support and is investing more than £3m from UKSPF into support for local businesses.

The event also heard the story of Mohammed Essajee, owner of Interiors by Design, and Scott Burton, General Manager at TEK Seating.

Keynote speaker Tajinder Banwait described the journey of her fragrance brand, Urban Apothecary London, from a kitchen table in Leicester to 30 international markets.

Tajinder, honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise last year in recognition of excellence in international trade, also described her new brand, Palette London, before sharing growth tips with delegates.

Rising corporate profits have emerged as a key driver of Europe’s inflation crisis, surpassing the impact of the energy shock caused by the war in Ukraine, according to analysis conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The research conducted by IMF staff reveals that profit increases accounted for nearly half of the eurozone’s post-pandemic inflation rate increase, with companies raising prices more than the spiking costs of imported energy. This finding is likely to be seized upon by trade unions as evidence of “greedflation,” as they advocate for pay raises for their members. Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s deputy managing director, has called on companies to abandon efforts to protect their profit margins in the face of higher costs. She emphasized that for inflation to decrease rapidly, firms must allow their profit margins, which have risen significantly in the past two years, to decline and absorb some of the expected rise in labour costs. The analysis by the IMF comes in the wake of British companies reporting increased profits. Associated British Foods (ABF), the owner of Primark, raised its outlook for the year, citing that shoppers had absorbed price increases for food and clothing. Despite the volume of goods sold remaining relatively flat, the value of ABF’s sales increased by 16% in the quarter to May 27. Eoin Tonge, the finance director, stated that the company had sacrificed some profitability to stay true to their consumers by not raising prices in line with inflation. Inflation in the food sector has shown signs of easing, with supermarkets cutting the prices of household staples. Overall shop price inflation in the UK slowed to 8.4% in June from 9% in May, according to the British Retail Consortium. Food inflation also decreased to 14.6% in June from 15.4% in May, marking the second consecutive deceleration. These trends indicate that prices in shops may have reached their peak. The IMF’s Gopinath emphasized that historical trends indicate workers are likely to raise their salary expectations in order to protect their level standard of living. Workers should experience some wage catch-up as they attempt to make up ground lost due to the pandemic. IMF experts noted that a 5.5% pay increase would be required to bring real earnings back to their pre-pandemic levels by the end of the following year. For inflation to reach the target level, however, the profit share of businesses would need to fall to its lowest level since the middle of the 1990s. The impact of the inflation crisis extends beyond corporate profits and affects workers who are grappling with the rising costs of living. Many individuals find themselves digging into their savings to survive the economic pressures caused by inflation. As prices for essential goods and services increase, households face the challenge of stretching their budgets to cover daily expenses. The challenge is that businesses can find it difficult to accept earnings declines, especially if the economy is still resilient. Additionally, employees may demand compensation for their actual salary losses. Such dynamics could impede the decline in inflation and exacerbate cost pressures and resource depletion. Companies like Sainsbury’s have promised to lower the pricing of their own-brand products and match those of its competitors in an effort to address the issue. The government is also taking action. As the cost of living continues to climb, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has met with the regulators of the grocery stores, water, electricity, and telecoms sectors to make sure savings are passed on to customers. In conclusion, the inflation crisis in Europe has been mostly driven by increasing corporate profits, exceeding the effects of the energy shock brought on by the conflict in Ukraine. This analysis will probably be cited by trade unions as proof of “greedflation” and as justification for raising worker wages. The IMF urges businesses to accept declining profit margins in order to cover rising labor costs. For governments, corporations, and trade unions, striking a balance that addresses inflation concerns while preserving workers’ living standards and corporate profitability is still essential.

A majority of small international traders do not have the dedicated manpower required to handle complex customs paperwork and need to turn to high-cost intermediaries, according to new research by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). FSB’s Customs Clearance report finds that the smaller the businesses, the less likely they are to have in-house resources for customs and trade – only 9% of small firms have a dedicated staff member or team. Of these firms, four in ten (38%) have more than 50 employees. Seven in ten (71%) small exporters and importers say they use an intermediary for at least some of the process of handling customs declarations, compared to just a quarter (24%) that handle the entire process in-house. Fast parcel operator (60%) is the most widely used type of intermediary by small international traders, followed by freight forwarder (50%) and customs agents/broker (26%). As businesses are adjusting to the new UK-EU trade relationship, small international traders say they have been asked to pay fees attributed to post-Brexit paperwork, but in many cases there is a lack of clarity from intermediaries on what exactly these extra costs are for. A third of respondents cite high intermediary fees as a challenge for overseas trade. Despite facing higher costs, many small businesses say they will continue to rely on intermediates to export and import. Four in ten (39%) explain this is because they do not have the expertise required to handle customs declarations, while over half (57%) say footing the extra bill would free up their time for other tasks. FSB sets out a list of recommendations to bring down the costs and barriers of international trade in the report, including:

• Building a small business-friendly Single Trade Window, an online portal delivering a ‘once and done’ approach to Government data collection.
• Targeting business support towards those with high export potential, and those in sectors that say they find a lack of guidance particularly difficult.
• Monitor potential anti-competitive behaviour resulting from supply chain disruption via the Competition and Markets Authority Five Eyes working group.
• Adopting a ‘think small first’ approach to customs policy development, including robust piloting and staggered implementation timelines. Government should also commit to raising the de minimis customs duty threshold to £1,000.

FSB Policy Chair Tina McKenzie said: “The fact that small firms say they will continue to use intermediaries to export and import despite increasing costs shows a strong zeal for international trade. “Unlike big corporates, most small firms don’t have the specialised resources needed to deal with complex customs procedures, so they’re dependent on intermediaries. Smaller businesses may also have to bear higher costs as they are unable to commit to large volume and less able to reach fixed price agreements or to negotiate with couriers. “A flourishing, competitive, and user-friendly intermediary market is vital to small firms. It’s therefore welcome to see the on-going government consultation on introducing voluntary standards for customs intermediaries to improve the quality of service provided. “There’s also a need for an effective and streamlined trade infrastructure with clear guidance to help reduce the costs of trade. This will unleash the export potential of small international traders as well as encouraging more businesses to sell overseas. “Small firms’ appetite to explore new markets and tackle trade barriers means there is reason to be optimistic about the future of SME international trade, and policymakers should make the most of this opportunity.”

Tesla is the car brand still dominating the UK market and there appears to be no imminent expectation of that changing, according to the ‘EV Statistics Dashboard’ created by Pink Salary Exchange. The US-based electric vehicle (EV) brand has taken over the EV market in recent years, and according to the monthly figures compiled by the salary sacrifice experts, that stranglehold isn’t showing any signs of being released. There was a time when the Nissan Leaf was the go-to EV for anyone thinking of making the switch to battery-powered and zero emission driving, but Tesla has completely swept the Japanese brand aside, particularly since the release of the Model 3 executive saloon car in 2017. And at the end of 2021 the UK was taking its first deliveries of the Tesla Model Y, a compact SUV, which has since upstaged the Model 3, and that can be seen in the handy stats dashboard updated each month and freely available on the Pink Salary Exchange website. The most search-for EVs The top five most searched-for brands on the Pink Salary Exchange platform has remained unchanged for the last two months. The top two places have been taken up by Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 respectively, while third place was the Polestar 2, fourth place was the Skoda Enyaq and fifth place was the Audi E-Tron. April and May saw these top five places remain the same, while in March the only change was the Porsche Taycan replacing the Skoda Enyaq. Indeed, the only other models to make the top five most searched for cars in 2023 have been the MG Motor MG4, the Kia Niro and the BMW I4. One million EV target in reach Tesla CEO Elon Musk vowed to concentrate on sales growth rather than profitability in 2023, and hence has made the Model Y and Model 3 much more affordable in the UK, which might explain their dominance in the figures. But the Pink Salary Exchange EV Statistics Dashboard does highlight the fact that virtually every major vehicle brand has an EV on the market now, and it also shows that the EV market is well on the way to hitting its one million sales target by 2024. In May 2023 there were 786,000 EVs on UK roads, but experts do think the cost of living crisis in 2023 may have put a temporary halt on EV sales. In May 2023 EV sales accounted for 17% of the overall UK vehicle market, while back in December 2022, the dashboard shows us that this was as high as 33%. Either way, the EV is an unstoppable force. Keep up to date with the latest EV statistics via the Pink Salary Exchange EV Statistics Dashboard.

Nottingham-headquartered Boots is planning to close 300 shops as it looks to evolve its store estate. Over the next year Boots will continue to consolidate a number of stores in close proximity to each other, saying this will allow the company “to concentrate its team members where they are needed and focus investment more acutely in individual stores with the ambition of consistently delivering an excellent and reliable service in a fresh and up to date environment.” No jobs are expected to be lost, with employees offered roles at nearby shops. The news comes as Boots announced its third quarter retail sales were up 13.4% year on year. More customers are shopping at Boots more often, with the number of transactions up both in store and online, with footfall growth ahead of the wider retail market. City centre flagship and travel stores saw the biggest increase, while digital sales also continued to grow, up 25.2% year on year. Seb James, Managing Director, Boots UK and ROI, said: “Our focus on offering our customers the best in healthcare and beauty, together with a continued commitment to great value, has been well received, and it is lovely to see more people choosing to shop with Boots. It is particularly pleasing to see our owned brands proving popular, including an exceptional No7 performance. I would like to thank all of our team members for their hard work in delivering these results.”