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Temu’s UK operation doubles revenues and pre-tax profits
The UK operation of the Chinese online marketplace Temu doubled revenues and pre-tax profits last year, as British consumers snapped up products offered by the super-budget retailer.
Temu UK reported revenues of $63.3m (£46.4m) last year, almost double the $32m in 2023, while pre-tax profits similarly surged from $2m to $3.9m, accounts show.
However, at an operating level, the company, which files under the name Whaleco UK at Companies House, reported losses widening from $7.9m to $8.7m year-on-year. The company put most of its broadening operating loss down to “exchange losses”.
Because of Temu’s small pre-tax profit, the company paid just $985,000 in UK corporation tax, up from $517,000 in 2023.
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Bold and ‘brat’: M&S bets on womenswear to revive autumn fortunes
After a cyber-attack rained on its summer, Marks & Spencer is banking on fashion to brighten its autumn.
A Prada-esque, crystal-embellished, charcoal V-neck cardigan (£46), a faux leather trenchcoat with a price tag of £90 – £6,810 less than the Burberry version – and a £36 short pleated skirt that offers a wearable take on Charli xcx’s “brat” styling will hit shop floors shortly.
“We can be bolder because, while we continue to dominate in the over-55s, we’ve got new customers in the 35- to 55-year-old age range,” said Maddy Evans, the brand’s womenswear lead, at a showcase of the new collection in the run-up to London fashion week, which begins on Friday.
The store is relying on womenswear, which has been ticking upward in sales and credibility for two years, to lead a bounce back after a devastating cyber-attack that affected M&S from April to August and is predicted to have cost the business £300m in profits.
Evans said the retailer was aiming for two-thirds newness in store.
That basically means that if a customer walks in to see the new season, two-thirds of it she will never have seen before. The other third is core product – white T-shirts, skinny jeans, black wide-leg trousers, pieces that never go out of stock.
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Manchester United hit £666.5m record revenue but lose £33m amid turmoil
Manchester United have revealed record revenues of £666.5m for last season but still reported a loss of £33m for the financial year. The club were without Champions League football in 2024-25 and finished 15th in the Premier League but their revenue marginally increased by 0.7%.
Accounts for the year ending 30 June show United’s operating loss fell from £69.3m to £18.4m compared with the previous 12 months. Overall losses dropped from £113.2m to £33m after the co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe oversaw wide-ranging, and often unpopular, changes at a club he claimed in March had “gone one off the rails” as a business. The British billionaire warned United would have gone “bust at Christmas” if they had not taken “really tough decisions”.
The chief executive, Omar Berrada, said:
On the field, we are pleased with the additions we have made to our men’s and women’s first-team squads over the summer, as we build for the long term. Off the field, we are emerging from a period of structural and leadership change with a refreshed, streamlined organisation equipped to deliver on our sporting and commercial objectives.
To have generated record revenues during such a challenging year for the club demonstrates the resilience which is a hallmark of Manchester United … As we start to feel the benefits of our cost-reduction programme, there is significant potential for improved financial performance, which will, in turn, support our overriding priority: success on the pitch.
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Bank of Canada cuts interest rates by quarter point
The Bank of Canada has cut interest rates by a quarter point to 2.5%, as expected.
The rate is now below the midpoint of the Bank’s 2.25% to 3.25% neutral range estimate for the first time since the opening stages of the pandemic.
In his opening statement to the press conference, governor Tiff Macklem highlighted three factors behind the decision: the softness of the labour market, recent more encouraging core price data, and the government’s decision to remove most of its retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
Even so, Macklem struck a cautious tone in relation to US trade policy, noting that
the disruptive effects of shifts in trade will add costs even as they weigh on economic activity. It is difficult to predict the extent of cost increases, where they will show up, and how they could be passed through to consumer prices.
The Bank dropped the line from its previous policy statement that said “if a weakening economy puts further downward pressure on inflation and the upward price pressures from the trade disruptions are contained, there may be a need for a reduction in the policy interest rate.”
However, the Bank reiterated that it will be assessing the extent to which weakness in exports “spills over into business investment, employment, and household spending”, how “trade disruptions are…passed on to consumer prices” and “how inflation expectations evolve”.
Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said:
That leaves the door to another interest rate cut this year if, as we expect, economic growth remains weak while core inflation pressures remain under control.
The Bank of Canada’s decision to cut by 25bp today was of little surprise following the recent softer labour market data and easing of upside inflation risks, although the relatively neutral tone of the Bank’s policy statement suggests that it is not necessarily expecting to cut rates again in October.
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UK university research offers ‘huge economic potential’ – study
Meanwhile, a report from the life science campus developer Pioneer Group and the Crown Estate found that the research done at British universities offers “huge economic potential that is not being realised due to capital constraints, with strong regional disparities at play”.
The study, titled Bridging the Capital Gap for UK Research Commercialisation, said that if £15bn were invested in early-stage ventures over the next 10 years, with a further £27bn of investment this could lead to 1,771 new spinout companies – more than doubling the current number, and creating 56,000 jobs.
Over the past decade, the UK has generated 1,358 university spinouts, mostly in the golden triangle – the life sciences cluster of London, Oxford and Cambridge – which has attracted £8bn of venture capital. It receives the vast majority of capital (85%), even though it produces less than a third of British research. The report flagged the government’s pension reforms, aimed at getting pension funds to invest in UK assets.
Toby Reid, executive director at Pioneer Group, explains:
British science is globally significant, with the UK boasting 17 universities in the world top 100, including four in the top 10. Their world-leading research and innovation represent huge economic potential that is not being realised due to capital constraints, with strong regional disparities at play.
Despite universities across the UK demonstrating strong research power, 85.2% of all spinout venture capital raised since 2010 was in the Golden Triangle. Yet it only produced 31% of the research in the UK. This demonstrates the pressing need to ensure we maximise the commercial potential of research flowing from regions up and down the country.
Indeed, the world is entering a new kind of race – not for territory or trade – but for next generation technologies. Our universities hold the keys to these technologies, but we must go further and faster in commercialising them to enable their real-world impact.
Matt Mason, head of innovation at The Crown Estate, said:
British science is world-class, but its commercial potential remains largely untapped.
To make the most of these opportunities and our innovation economy, we must build the necessary infrastructure to support talent, venture capital and technology. This will allow us to turn research excellence into economic impact and position the UK as a global leader in research commercialisation, while delivering the next generation of world-changing technologies.
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UK is going to be ‘AI superpower’, says Nvidia boss as he invests £500m
Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the US AI chipmaker Nvidia, has predicted “the UK is going to be an AI superpower” as he announced a new £500m investment in a British firm.
Huang, who is due to join Donald Trump at Wednesday night’s state banquet with the king, said he was taking an equity stake in NScale, a UK cloud computing company, and predicted it would earn revenues of up to £50bn over the next six years. He told a press conference in London:
We’re here to announce that the UK is going to be an AI superpower.
Huang cited as evidence of Britain’s potential its universities and several companies founded in the UK, ranging from the AI giant DeepMind to the driverless car startup Wayve. “You just don’t appreciate it. Your universities. Come on. You’re too humble,” he said.
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Labour must rethink growth strategy to curb rise of far right, says top economist
Defeating far-right populism will require Labour to radically overhaul its “arid” approach to raising living standards in left-behind communities, the former Bank of England chief economist has said.
Andy Haldane warned that Labour’s growth plans were failing to support parts of the country where voters feel neglected and disenfranchised.
With ministers under pressure to respond to a summer of unrest, he said the “single most important thing” Keir Starmer’s government could do was to rethink its economic approach before the autumn budget.
He said:
We need a story of growth that isn’t aridly told from 30,000 feet, but speaks to the lived experience and to the prospects and opportunities of workers in the everyday economy.
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Morrisons reports slowing sales
Morrisons has reported a slowdown in sales growth and flagged “challenging macroeconomic conditions”.
The UK’s fifth-largest supermarket chain, which was acquired by the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2021, said like-for-like sales rose by 3% in the 13 weeks to 27 July, down from 3.9% growth in the previous quarter.
The company also complained of rising costs:
We are also managing the incremental impact of the autumn budget and other government legislation, which has created significant cost headwinds, some of which were unexpected at the start of the financial year.
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Alexandra Brown, North America economist at Capital Economics, said:
The weakness in August housing starts was as expected, especially after July’s hard-to-explain strength. While homebuilders have recently become more optimistic about prospects for housing demand, as mortgage rates have eased, the decline in building permits suggests that housing starts are nonetheless likely to decline further.
The fall was broad-based by housing type… The weakness was centred in the South; total housing starts increased in the Northeast, and West and single-family starts increased in the Midwest. Looking forward, the 3.7% decline in building permits in August suggests this weakness will continue, with both single family and multifamily permits falling.
Homebuilder confidence held steady in September with a dismal reading of 32. The NAHB press release singled out rising construction costs and the increasing need to offer price reductions to make sales as key reasons for depressed sentiment. However, builders have become more optimistic about future sales thanks to the decline in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to a 11-month low of below 6.4%.
However, we doubt mortgage rates will fall much further, with the widely anticipated Fed cuts now mostly priced in. This should keep demand subdued. As a result, homebuilding should remain stagnant over the next year, with housing starts remaining below 1.32m.
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US housing starts fall, suggesting market is cooling
The number of homes started in the US in August fell, along with home building permits, suggesting the housing market is cooling.
Total US housing starts fell by 8.5% in August from July to 1.307m, and were lower than expected. It was the biggest monthly drop in five months and comes after a downwardly revised 3.4% rise in July to 1.43m. The number of single-family homes started fell by 7% to 957,000, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Home building permits also fell, by 3.7% last month against expectations of an increase.
Total U.S. #housing starts fell 8.5% in August to an annual rate of 1.307 million, 6% below Aug. 2024. Single-family home starts dropped 7% last month to 957,000 annualized, 11.7% lower than August 2024. Home building permits were also 11% lower than a year ago. #realestate pic.twitter.com/IDYzLdNHXd
— NAHB 🏠 (@NAHBhome) September 17, 2025
U.S. housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.307 million, missing consensus expectations of 1.365 million. Building permits—a leading indicator of future groundbreaking—also declined to 1.312 million, below the expected 1.37 million.
Single-family starts… pic.twitter.com/FSSnYaXIZV
— Odeta Kushi (@odetakushi) September 17, 2025Share
Updated at 14.56 CEST
Jason Rodrigues
The announcement today that Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, has decided to step down from the company he and his partner Ben Cohen sold to Unilever in 2000 comes as little surprise, given the uneasy relationship that has existed since the two sides merged over 25 years ago, reports Jason Rodrigues from the Guardian’s Research & Information Department.
The founders of the then-independent ice-cream company, who had incorporated a social mission into their business, were unhappy with the brand’s new owner appointing one of its longstanding managers, Yves Couette, as chief executive of Ben & Jerry’s, saying: “while he [Couette] seems like a nice man, we support a different candidate.”
Unilever were unwavering in their decision, saying: “once Yves gets there, they will realise he is a very cool guy.”
Unilever had kept Greenfield and Cohen on as senior advisers after they sold their company for an estimated $49m, not least because of their iconic value.
The pair had founded the company with its ethos of ‘caring capitalism’ in 1978. They insisted on using local, hormone-free milk and adopted other socially aware policies,
The public fell in love with the story of two ex-hippies who started out making homemade scoops in a converted garage in Burlington, Vermont, and the company grew.
The pair also came up with way-out names for their flavours: Peace Pops, Cherry Garcia (after the late guitarist Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead), and Cool Britannia, a vanilla ice cream with strawberries and fudge-covered shortbread.
The Guardian, 22 Nov 2000: Ben & Jerry’s merger with Unileaver gets off to a bad start. Photograph: Guardian/The GuardianShare
Eurozone inflation confirmed at 2% in August
Inflation in the eurozone was stable at 2% in August – and nearly half the 3.8% rate seen in the UK.
In the European Union, annual inflation stayed at 2.4%, unchanged from July, according to final figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office.
The lowest annual rates were registered in Cyprus (0.0%), France (0.8%) and Italy (1.6%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (8.5%), Estonia (6.2%) and Croatia (4.6%).
Last week, the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged, leaving its key rate on the deposit facility at 2%, the lowest in more than two years.
ECB president Christine Lagarde said after the decision that the “disinflationary process is over” and that the eurozone is “in a good place”.
“The domestic economy is showing resilience, the labour market is solid and risks are more balanced,” she told journalists, adding that inflation was “where we want it to be”.
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Updated at 14.46 CEST
Growth in UK house prices and rents slows in July
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics released this morning show that average house prices in the UK in July were 2.8% higher than a year earlier, down from 3.6% price growth in June.
Growth has slowed sharply since hitting a two-year high in March, when buyers rushed to complete sales before a tax break on house purchases expired.
Rents charged by private landlords rose by 5.7% year-on-year in August, down from an annual rate of 5.9% in July – the smallest annual increase since December 2022.
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