Reporting Accounts - news and updates

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about John Lewis and their announcement of a further store closure programme.  John Lewis is a well respected high street brand in the UK, and unusually it is owned by it's members rather than shareholders.   Last year it announced losses of £635m and that means it has won't pay its staff a bonus for the first time since 1953.  It is planning to close up to 8 of its remaining 42 store, this will be a significant blow to its loyal customers as John Lewis is often the anchor store in many town centre locations.

It is yet another sign of how damaging the pandemic and the three lockdowns are to the UK economy.  There is a positive side to the announcement in that John Lewis expects up to 70% of its sales to be through its digital channel by 2025, this also highlights how retailers are increasingly focussing on their online sales channels.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we hold insights and information into more than 4.8 million UK companies visit our website which can be found at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about how companies with warehouses they expanded to cope with the surge of online sales during the UK's three lockdowns are now planning to retain them.  This is a long term trend which appears to have been accelerated by the pandemic by between three and five years.  If this proves to be the case then it means the traditional retail market will have a tough time when the UK returns from lockdown.

It is likely that niche retailers and those with strong digital offerings will succeed whilst those with neither attribute will struggle.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we hold information and insights covering more than 4.8 million companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

Moonpig group plc the recently listed greetings card online retailer reported its strongest ever week over the valentines day period.  The company now expects its revenues for the year to 30th April to be around double the £173m it reported in the previous year.  The shares rose 2.5% to £4.45 in early trading on Thursday.

The increase in demand saw the "strongest ever trading week in the Group's history" the company said in a brief statement.

It shows that the pandemic has had a positive impact on the groups trading as most high street competitors are closed due to the UK's lockdown. What happens once the country re-opens and life returns more to normal remains to be seen.  This is still a very positive result for the company.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and to find information and insights into companies like Moonpig and more than 4.8million others, visit our website which can be found at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence our resident financial professional talks about how Barclays bank is putting aside £2.1billion as a provision for bad debts.  The UK and US economies have been badly impacted by the pandemic and the bank now expects a proportion of its lending during that time never to be repaid, as a result it is making a provision in its accounts to cover its expected losses.

Provision can sometimes be overly cautious and if that is the case then some of this provision will be released as a future profit, but there is also a good chance that the provision will be needed.  Once Government support is withdrawn then businesses in the UK and USA will face a day of reckoning as businesses and individuals become insolvent.

To learn more about our services at Reporting Accounts and how you can use our site to monitor companies for free, visit https://www.reportingaccounts.com where you will find information and insights covering more than 4.8million UK companies.

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence our in-house financial expert talks about how Companies House, the UK's Government agency that deals with the filing of company accounts, has suspended its voluntary and compulsory strike off notices.   This is part of the wider Government pandemic initiative to help companies during this challenging time.

Often directors rely on postal reminders to keep their company records in order, and with the prolonged third lockdown in the UK, this is an increasing issue.  So by giving companies an extra month to catch up with their admin the initiative is helpful.

What companies house is saying it that "We’ll continue to publish first Gazette notices for voluntary strike  off applications to minimise the impact on those who have applied to  close their company - but we will not be publishing the second Gazette notice and striking companies off during this period. For companies on  the compulsory strike off path, we will not be publishing first and second Gazette notices.

Pausing our strike off processes will provide companies with more  time to update their records and help them avoid being struck off the  register. It’ll also protect creditors and other interested parties who  might have had difficulties in receiving notices or registering an  objection, or whose objections have not yet been processed."

So some positive news for those managing the company secretarial affairs of UK companies.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we make use of the data from Companies House, visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com where you will find information and insights into more than 4.8 milllion UK companies.

Today Adrian Lawrence our resident financial expert is talking about Virgin Wines, this is a company that was formerly associated with Richard Branson but was subsequently sold to a management team and private equity houses.

The company is joining the London aim market on 2nd March and is likely to be valued at £100m.  As with other recent IPO's the company has traded successfully during the pandemic lockdowns as its business model is digitally based.

2021 has already been a postive year for new issues, and Virgin Wines follows on from the successful IPO's of Dr Marten's and Moonpig, both of which have been the subject of Podcasts episodes on this show.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we have insights and information covering more than 4.8 million companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

In today's episode our financial expert Adrian Lawrence talks about the Pound's foreign exchange rate, which has been rising over recent weeks.   There is growing optimism in the UK economy as the vaccination roll out program is on target with more than 15 million people now vaccinated, which means it is now more likely that the lockdown of retail, leisure and hospitality can end.

The other significant factor in the exchange rate was Brexit where the uncertainty was lifted before the end of 2020 when the UK reach a withdrawl agreement with the EU.

The UK looks to be able to recover faster than the EU whose vaccination program is proceeding at a far slower rate.   

The exchange rate is now £1 to $1.38 with market expections of a return to the long term average rate of $1.45.  The rate against the Euro has also improved to around £1 to Euro1.14.

This is positive news story as it shows there is renewed positivity about the UK economy.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we hold information and insights into more than 4.8million UK companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence our in-house financial professional talks about Land Rover Jaguar and how they are going all electric, the story in the press is that they are moving to an all electric line up, and plan to discontinue their petrol and diesel engine models at the end of their natural lifecycles.  

This is a brave decision but also one that makes long term sense, the sales of petrol and diesel cars has to decline as the UK has committed to move to being net carbon neutral by 2050, so investing in a declining technology does not make sense.  Electric cars on the other hand are close to a tipping point in the UK and will soon overtake convential fueled vehicle sales.

Jaguar Land Rover is therefore aiming to take on Tesla but at the more luxury end of the market.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and our UK Business intelligence service visit our website to read where we share information and insights into more than 4.8 million companies.

In today's episode our resident financial professional talks about auditing during the Covid Pandemic, a qualified chartered accountant himself Adrian is familar with the auditing process.   In normal times the auditors team would attend client a clients site for between a week and two weeks during which time they dig into the books and records of a business verifying the accuracy of the accounting records.

The Covid pandemic has however presented many obstacles to overcome, premises are typically closed, staff are working from home or self isolating and the this means the majority of work has had to be undertaken remotely.   Auditors have been innovative in their approach to this challenge and we have heard of drones being used to attend stock takes remotely and for the staff walking around stock locations to have life streamed using mobile devices so the auditors can attend virtually.

Listed companies are very keen to stick to their anticipated accounts publishing dates as delays can make investors nervous.   Overall the profession appears to have coped very well with the lockdowns.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we offer information and insights into more than 4.8 million UK companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

In todays podcast Adrian Lawrence talks about how Digital Nomads are settling down for the longer term to become techpats, having enjoyed travelling the world working remotely from their laptop many are now deciding to select sunny low tax countries to work out from on a permanent basis.

Cyprus is very attractive from this perspective as it allows residency rights provided you stay in the country for more than 90 days per year, and a very attractive corporation tax regime of 12.5%.  As its an EU state there are many advantageous in terms of security and stable trade arrangements with the rest of the World.

It's believed there are as many as 4.8 million digital nomads which is the same number as there are companies in the UK, and as many as 17 million worldwide are interested in this lifestyle.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com