Allwyn has seen half-year turnover nearly double after snapping up National Lottery operator Camelot and hailing resilient demand despite cost pressures on consumers.
The Czech company reported total revenues of £3.2billion for the six months to June 30, up from £1.6bn a year earlier.
Revenues in the second quarter jumped 115 per cent higher to £1.8bn after its performance was boosted through the takeover of Camelot UK and Camelot Lottery Solutions, which runs the Illinois Lottery, in the first quarter of 2023.
With the newly acquired firm stripped out, Allwyn said revenues rose 12 per cent in the first half to £1.8bn and were 7 per cent higher over the second quarter.
The group said consumer confidence was being affected by the cost-of-living crisis but that its business saw “only a limited impact”. It said demand remained resilient “due to the low price point of our products and low average spend per customer, as well as our large number of regular players”.
Allwyn also said its business has been shielded from much of the wider cost inflation, given that “a significant portion of our costs is directly linked to revenues and the low proportion of energy in our cost base”.
Robert Chvatal, Allwyn CEO, commented, “I am pleased to report that Allwyn delivered another quarter of strong growth, profitability and strategic progress.
“We delivered organic revenue growth across markets, and also saw a further step up in profit and free cash flow generation owing to this being the first full quarter of ownership of our recent acquisitions, Camelot UK and Allwyn LS Group (formerly Camelot LS Group).
“I am happy to report that the good performance in our existing geographies was driven primarily by strong growth in digital, where we have sustained our momentum in product development and innovation.
“Alongside this, we continue to evolve and digitise the customer proposition in physical retail, while during the quarter we once again saw resilience of demand for our products, even in an environment where consumer spending remains under pressure.
“Overall, I am very pleased with Allwyn’s continued progress and believe we are well placed for the rest of 2023 and the next chapters of our growth story.”
Shoppers who walk and wheel spend more than those arriving by car, states a recent report, demonstrating the significant economic and social benefits of investing in walkable town centres, challenging traditional views on urban accessibility.
The findings published in third edition of "The Pedestrian Pound Report", recently published by Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, come at a critical juncture for British high streets, with a record number of retail failures in 2022 and a vacancy rate of nearly one in seven by the end of 2023.
The launch of the report is backed by Scotland’s national walking charity, Paths for All, underscoring the need to make walking a central feature of Scotland’s high streets.
“Making high streets and town centres more walkable increases time – and money – spent in those businesses,” says Catherine Woodhead, Chief Executive of Living Streets. “It’s slowly being recognised – the majority (95 per cent) of London’s Business Improvement Districts identify a good walking environment as important to business performance.”
The report highlights encouraging data from Scottish towns, such as Nairn, where public space improvements and community events have significantly bolstered foot traffic. In 2022, a Christmas event in the town drew 7,800 attendees, including 600 new visitors, while a classic car show in 2023 attracted over 10,000, with 80 per cent saying they would return even outside of events.
Kevin Lafferty, Chief Executive of Paths for All, emphasised the broader benefits, “These findings show that when we put people first and make walking and wheeling the easiest, most natural choices, we don’t just get an economic boost – we build communities that are happier, healthier, and more sustainable for everyone.”
The report highlights that 85 per cent of Scottish adults walk or wheel regularly, contributing to both economic and health benefits.
In Scotland alone, the health benefits from walking to work are valued at over £600 million annually in prevented deaths. Community-focused initiatives, such as the Alloa Hub, are proving successful in encouraging residents to travel into town centres, with research showing that 56p of every £1 spent in community businesses stays in the local economy.
The report is timely, with investment in active and sustainable transport cut by £23.7 million by the Scottish Government this September. The Pedestrian Pound provides an excellent case for these vital funds to be restored.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has announced plans to rebuild neighbourhood policing and combat surging shop theft as part of an ambitious programme of reform to policing.
In her first major speech at the annual conference hosted by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners on Tuesday, Cooper highlighted four of the key areas for reform: neighbourhood policing, police performance, structures and capabilities, crime prevention.
The initiatives she announced include:
a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to get policing back to basics and rebuild trust between local forces and the communities they serve
a new Police Performance Unit to track national data on local performance and drive up standards
a new National Centre of Policing to harness new technology and forensics, making sure policing is better equipped to meet the changing nature of crime
The home secretary also announced more than half a billion pounds of additional central government funding for policing next year to support the government’s Safer Streets Mission, including an increase in the core grant for police forces, and extra resources for neighbourhood policing, the NCA and counter-terrorism.
In her speech, Cooper said that without a major overhaul to increase public confidence, the British tradition of policing by consent will be in peril.
“I am determined that neighbourhood policing must be rebuilt,” she said, pointing to its decline over the past decade. Cuts to community-based roles have left town centres vulnerable to rising crime and antisocial behaviour, she added.
“Shop theft is up at a record high, street theft is up 40 per cent in a year… Criminals – often organised gangs – are just getting away with it. We cannot stand for this,” she said.
Cooper reiterated the government’s commitment to deliver an additional 13,000 police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles, adding that further steps will be announced in the coming weeks.
The reforms will restore community patrols with a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee and an enhanced role for Police and Crime Commissioners to prevent crime. The changes will also ensure that policing has the national capabilities it needs to fight fast-changing, complex crimes which cut across police force boundaries.
“The challenge of rebuilding public confidence is a shared one for government and policing. This is an opportunity for a fundamental reset in that relationship, and together we will embark on this roadmap for reform to regain the trust and support of the people we all serve and to reinvigorate the best of policing,” Cooper said.
Keep ReadingShow less
Bank of England building on Threadneedle Street, CLondon (Photo: iStock)
Retailers are right to warn of potential job cuts as a result of tax increases announced at last month’s budget, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said.
Bailey appeared before the cross-party Treasury select committee on Tuesday (19), after almost 80 retailers claimed rising costs would make “job losses inevitable, and higher prices a certainty”.
“I think there is a risk here that the reduction in employment could be more. Yes, I think that’s a risk,” Bailey said, adding that depending on how companies respond, there could be a bigger reduction in employment as a result of the NICs rise than the 50,000 jobs projected by the government’s spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Bailey suggested the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) would continue to reduce interest rates slowly from their current level of 4.75%, allowing time to assess the impact of the tax changes.
Rachel Reeves’s first budget increased taxes by £40bn, which Labour said would be used to fund creaking public services. The biggest revenue-raiser was a £25bn rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), which has prompted a backlash from business groups.
In a letter to the chancellor, retail bosses claimed this and other changes would cost the sector £7bn and lead to layoffs. Signatories included senior figures from Tesco, Greggs, H&M, B&Q and Specsavers.
The letter, which was organised by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and signed by 80 companies, warned the industry faces £7bn in increased costs as a result of changes to employers’ National Insurance, a higher minimum wage rise and levies on packaging.
It added that job losses were now “inevitable”, as a result of the “sheer scale” of the new costs on business.
The letter continued: “For any retailer, large or small, it will not be possible to absorb such significant cost increases over such a short timescale. The effect will be to increase inflation, slow pay growth, cause shop closures and reduce jobs, especially at the entry level. This will impact high streets and customers right across the country.”
The BRC estimates that retailers will face a £2.3bn bill from April, after the implementation of the increase in employer NICs from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, as well as the reduction in the earnings threshold when they must start paying it, from £9,100 to £5,000.
Meanwhile, retailers are understood to have been contacted by the Treasury last week to find out whether they planned on giving their support to the letter, which criticised the Chancellor’s decision to impose extra costs on the industry. One industry source suggested the Government had been thrown into a “tizzy” by the prospect of a public letter rebuking the Chancellor.
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) has urged independent shop owners to reach out to their local councils about the government's newly announced High Street Rental Auction (HSRA) powers, which aim to tackle persistently vacant commercial properties on UK high streets.
Introduced through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, the HSRA legislation will come into force on 2 December. It will give local authorities the ability to put the leases of long-term empty shops up for public auction, allowing businesses and community groups to secure short-term tenancies.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of Bira, said: "The introduction of High Street Rental Auctions is a positive step forward in revitalising our town and city centres. For far too long, disengaged landlords have been allowed to leave key commercial properties sitting vacant, to the detriment of local businesses and communities."
"We urge all independent shop owners who have experienced issues with persistently empty premises in their area to engage with their local council. These new rental a provides an opportunity for retailers and other organisations to gain access to high street spaces that may have previously been off-limits."
The government has committed over £1 million in funding to support the HSRA process, which aims to breathe new life into town centres by bringing businesses, community services and customers back to the high street.
Goodacre added: "High streets are the beating heart of our local communities, and we cannot allow them to wither away due to landlord inaction. These new rental auction powers give opportunities to established or new retailers to secure affordable, short-term tenancies and expand their reach within their community."
Britain's annual inflation rate jumped more than expected in October to back above the Bank of England's target as households and businesses faced higher energy bills, official data showed Wednesday.
The Consumer Prices Index reached 2.3 per cent from a three-year low of 1.7 percent in the 12 months to September, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
CPI was last at 2.3 percent in April, the ONS added in a statement, while analysts' consensus had been for the rate to climb back to 2.2 percent.
The Bank of England (BoE) target stands at 2.0 percent.
"Inflation rose... as the increase in the energy price cap meant higher costs for gas and electricity compared with a fall at the same time last year," ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said of October's data.
Britain's energy regulator Ofgem sets a price cap quarterly that suppliers can charge customers. The latest increase in October was 10 per cent but this is expected to drop markedly in January according to forecasts.
The regulator had cited rising prices on international energy markets owing to increasing geopolitical tensions, and extreme weather events driving competition for gas, as the reasons behind the sharp rise.
"We know that families across Britain are still struggling with the cost of living," senior Treasury official Darren Jones said in reaction to Wednesday's inflation reading and saying the Labour government needed to do more to help.
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 1.9 per cent in the year to October, up from 1.8 per cent to September 2024. The annual rate of 1.9 per cent in October compares with 10.1 per cent in the same month last year.
Analysts said despite prices rising faster than expected, the BoE remained on course to keep cutting British interest rates.
"But it lends some support... that the Bank will skip the December meeting and cut rates only gradually, by 25 basis points in February and at every other policy meeting until rates reach 3.50 percent in early 2026," forecast Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics research group.
The central bank earlier this month trimmed borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 4.75 per cent.
Following its decision, the BoE added that a maiden budget from Britain's Labour government in October, featuring tax rises and increased borrowing, would boost growth but also lift inflation.