Thursday, December 26, 2024

Wednesday September 25th 2024: Today’s business headlines

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Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the wider UK this morning.

Aberdeen robotics firm lands huge investment

An Aberdeen-based industrial robotics developer has raised £7.9million in new investment.

Leap Automation uses artificial intelligence to deliver robotics products and is initially targeting the food and drink sector.

The Scottish National Investment Bank is putting in £3.5 million, with Mercia Ventures and WA Capital also involved. Previous backers include Scottish Enterprise and Alba Equity.

The new money will be used by Leap to hire new staff and widen its product development. Ben Stuart, the Leap chief executive, said: “From the outset we have strived to build simple, flexible and cost-effective robotic systems that solve our customers’ most pressing challenges.”

New rules halt RBS plans to close Aberdeenshire branch

The only bank in the Aberdeenshire village of New Deer has been reprieved from closure, for the time being anyway.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is located on the village’s Main Street, was due to close on Thursday as part of branch closures.

However, this will not now be happening, with the bank being forced into a U-turn.

The bank’s decision comes amidst concerns over new Financial Conduct Authority rules guaranteeing access to cash in communities. These new regulations, which came into operation on September 18, have seen the company forced to back down temporarily.

Click here to read more in the P&J.

Profits rise at Scotmid

Scotmid has reported a near 40% increase in its trading profit in spite of rising wage costs and weak consumer sentiment.

The damp summer weather did not help sales in the core convenience store business or the Semichem chain in the six months to the end of July.

Group turnover edged up 1% to £214million while profit was at £2.1million, compared with £1.5million.

Click here to read more.

Card Factory blames minimum wage for profit slump

Card Factory, the greetings cards and gift retailer, has blamed the increase in the national living wage for a slump in profits.

Shares in the retailer fell by more than 20% after it reported that first-half pre-tax profits dropped 43% to £14 million, “predominantly driven by the increase in direct costs as a result of the impact of minimum wage increases”.

A number of businesses have warned of the impact of rising wages on profits after the UK’s national living wage rose by 9.8% to £11.44 an hour in April.

Click here to read more.

Sickness benefit claimants ‘should look for work’

Keir Starmer has said he believes that people claiming long-term sickness benefits should be expected to look for work.

He added that there would be “hard cases” and that the government and businesses should help those who may feel anxious about re-entering the workplace, but that the “basic proposition that you should look for work is right”.

The prime minister was speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, following his party conference speech in which he said he wanted to “level” with the country about the “trade-offs” people would face.

He told Labour activists: “If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud, do everything we can to tackle worklessness.”

Click here to read more.

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