Thursday newspaper round-up: Arcadia, retailers, business loans
Crawley has been identified as the place in Britain at highest risk of widespread job losses amid the coronavirus crisis, according to a report warning that the economic damage will fall unevenly across the country. More than half of all jobs in the West Sussex town are at risk of being furloughed or lost, according to the Centre for Cities thinktank, which said Crawley’s high reliance on the aviation industry placed it at the heart of the economic storm. - Guardian
The Arcadia Group, which owns brands including Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge, is estimated to have cancelled in excess of £100m of existing clothing orders worldwide from suppliers in some of the world’s poorest countries as the global garment sector faces ruin. According to data from the Bangladesh Garments and Manufacturing Association (BGMEA), the Arcadia Group has cancelled £9m of orders in Bangladesh alone. – Guardian
Retailers experienced the worst fall in sales on record last month as shops were forced to shut up and down the country. Total sales fell by 4.3pc in March, compared with 1.8pc decline for the same month last year, figures from the British Retail Council (BRC) and KPMG showed. It was the sharpest decline in the 25 years that the numbers have been collated. – Telegraph
BDO has become the biggest accounting group to announce plans to furlough its staff, while partner pay at Deloitte and EY is to be cut by a fifth. They are the latest firms to tighten up on their workforces as the professional services sector prepares for a coronavirus-related slump in revenues. – The Times
The banking industry has been criticised for a lack of clarity in data it published recording the provision of emergency state-backed credit to companies whose trade has been damaged. UK Finance, the banking trade body, said that £1.1 billion had gone to 6,020 borrowers via the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme. – The Times