The Post Office has paid out a quarter of a billion pounds in legal fees in relation to the Horizon IT scandal, almost equal to the amount that has been given so far to victims, states a recent report.
According to a freedom of information (FoI) request submitted by the Lawyer magazine and published by The Guardian, the state-owned body paid out £256.9 million to 15 law firms and two barristers chambers between September 2014 and March 2024.
The largest amount shown in the FoI was £163.6m paid to the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, which said its work had been “complex and wide-ranging, involving hundreds of our staff over a number of years, and working with millions of documents in relation to the inquiry”.
It is also reported that Herbert Smith Freehills had no role in prosecuting post office operators and its work for the Post Office in relation to Horizon began long after the state-owned body stopped the prosecutions. Its work has included helping the Post Office settle the high court lawsuit in December 2019 and supporting the financial redress to victims.
The figure for legal fees is almost the same as the £261m of financial redress that has been paid out to victims of the scandal as of the end of last month. The official figures show that the £261m has been paid so far to 2,800 claimants across three separate schemes. These include £54m for people who have had their criminal convictions overturned, as well as £126m for post office operators who had financial shortfalls in their branches, and £80m for claimants in the high court lawsuit brought by the campaigner Sir Alan Bates and 554 branch owner-operators against the Post Office.
A public inquiry into the Post Office is looking into what was known by its executives about problems in the IT system after it was rolled out to branches. The inquiry is due to start its seventh phase later this year.
More than 900 post office operators were wrongly convicted in the courts using IT evidence from the Horizon computer system, including 700 convictions secured by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015. New legislation quashing hundreds of convictions of branch owner-operators was passed before the general election in July.
Green Field Marketing Solutions have completed what is said to be “one of the UK’s biggest ever van sales operations”, driving distribution and increasing on-shelf space at convenience stores throughout GB for leading challenger brand, BOOST.
The operation involved a team of thirty, a fleet of 25 vans and a committed squad of professionals using the latest technology, explained Martin Rice, Operations Director, Green Field Marketing.
“Boost set us a big challenge with this sales blitz, but one we relished and were eager to deliver on. We used our state-of-the-art journey planning software to help drive efficiency and maximise call volume. This was supplemented by live data reporting and weekly updates, alongside a three-tiered quality control process, to help BOOST with internal stakeholder management.”
The van sales blitz focussed on three categories: BOOST Energy, Sport and Iced coffee.
“As one of the UK’s biggest ever van sales operations we knew from the outset that this was going to be a big undertaking for our team. We used our collective expertise, our on the ground knowledge of the convenience sector in England, Scotland and Wales, and our network of specialists, to create a plan that everyone was committed to.”
Green Field Marketing and its teams visited thousands of convenience stores over 12 weeks from July to September.
“BOOST set us a target of 22,000 convenience store visits with a focus on locations that have high population density and store concentration,” continued Martin. “It’s so gratifying to know that our efforts were not in vain. We visited 22,095 stores, selling over 52,500 cases whilst achieving a strike rate of over 61 per cent. We also audited the full BOOST drinks range during each visit to provide ongoing ROI outside of the product range on sale."
Adrian Hipkiss, Commercial Director, BOOST, said: “Green Field Marketing have been a trusted field sales partner for a number of years. We felt confident in their ability to deliver on this complex campaign and provide a springboard for the permanent field sales team going into the back end of 2024. Their dedication and drive to perform meant they overachieved on some lofty KPIs.”
Green Field Marketing is a specialist outsourced sales and merchandising company with offices in London, Dublin and Belfast.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the world’s largest independent bottler of Coca-Cola, has announced a planned investment of £42.3m for a new Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS) warehouse at its site in Wakefield, Europe’s largest soft drinks plant by volume.
The new ASRS will take two and a half years to build. To maximise space, it will stand at 38 metres tall and will increase Wakefield’s warehouse capacity, allowing it to hold and move an additional 29,500 pallets on top of its current capacity of 29,000 pallets. It will also deliver a reduction of 18,500 vehicle journeys per year from the road, equating to 441,000 km per year.
This funding follows a £31m site investment for the installation of a new state-of-the-art, canning line, capable of producing 2,000 cans per minute, which has been operational since July of this year. The line provides additional production capabilities for CCEP’s light-weight 330ml cans across brands including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite.
As part of its ‘Everyone is Welcome’ ethos, CCEP has also been evolving its approach to recruitment, focusing on attributes like skills and potential rather than experience or qualifications, to encourage more people to consider a career in manufacturing. As part of its 550-strong workforce, this approach has helped the site attract more females to work on its new canning line this year; with three of four team leaders on the line being female and a total 40/60 women to men gender split on the new line.
The site has received £103 million in investment since 2019 to enhance efficiencies and operate more sustainably, such as the replacement of its material handling equipment (MHE). This includes a fleet of 75 gas-powered forklift trucks, which is used to move cases of product around the site, replaced with units powered by lithium ion batteries, producing no carbon emissions in their day-to-day operation.
Vanessa Smith, Director of Wakefield Supply Chain Operations at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners said: “The new ASRS warehouse ensures we continue expanding our production capabilities as we look to the future, and operate as efficiently and sustainably as possible.
“This follows on from the installation our state-of-the-art canning line, which became operational this summer. In addition to improving the sites capabilities of our lightweight cans, the new line and latest investments underscore our commitment to our Wakefield site and the 550 strong workforce who work here.”
Stephen Moorhouse, Vice-President and General Manager, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (GB), commented: “Wakefield offers a range of modern manufacturing jobs and sits at the heart of many of our latest manufacturing technologies. We’ve invested more than £100million since 2019 to help us evolve operations on site and further support the local economy.”
Simon Lightwood MP for Wakefield and Rothwell said: “CCEP continues to play an important role in and around Wakefield. It’s fantastic to see the business invest in delivering more efficient and sustainable operations, which shows the organisations commitment to being a major employer in West Yorkshire.”
East of England Co-op has completed its roll out of EDGEPoS, the award-winning global software system from Henderson Technology, at five forecourt sites.
Located in Felixstowe, Colchester, Brightlingsea, Ipswich and Framlingham, EDGEPoS has been installed in two tills per site, and fully integrated to receive fuel sales.
Implementing EDGEPoS has meant there is now a direct product feed from the central database to the forecourts. Membership cards can now be accepted along with employee discount cards. The forecourt sites can also streamline the customer accounts process, and store colleagues have increased visibility of Drive Off and No Means To Pay transactions.
James Norman, Chief Finance Officer at the East of England Co-op said: “We were very motivated to switch to EDGEPoS as the system ticked all boxes for us. Being able to extract data and use it to understand what customers on our forecourts are actually buying is vital especially in today’s competitive marketplace. We are now able to provide consistency in our offers, across our food stores and forecourts so we can provide our members and customers the best value whenever they shop with us.”
Henderson Technology, Retail Technology Operations Director, Darren Nickles added, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with East of England Co-op. By boosting their forecourt operations with EDGEPoS, it means the system integrates with their fuel pumps, enabling efficient transactions, real-time fuel monitoring, and comprehensive reporting. It is great to hear that the EDGEPoS cutting-edge technology has been able to improve customer satisfaction and modernise their forecourt management.
“We look forward to implementing promotional offers, integrating stock management and pricing systems and providing the sites with greater reporting visibility.”
East of England Co-op is the largest independent retailer in East Anglia, with over 3,000 colleagues across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire with approximately 280,000 members and over 120 food stores and supermarkets across the region.
EDGEPoS from Henderson Technology is a powerful system supporting quick transactions, inventory management, and detailed sales analytics. The user-friendly, robust solution maximises efficiency and provides exceptional customer service.
Campaigners have urged MPs to reject plans to ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to future generations of adults.
Ahead of the second reading of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill on Tuesday (26), the smokers’ rights group Forest says the proposal is “unnecessarily divisive” and is not supported by the majority of the public.
According to a recent poll commissioned by Forest and conducted by Yonder Consulting, 60 per cent of respondents said that if people are allowed to drive a car, join the army, purchase alcohol, and vote at 18, they should also be allowed to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Fewer than a third (31 per cent) said they should not be allowed to purchase tobacco when legally an adult, while 9 per cent said 'don't know'.
Simon Clark, director of Forest, said, “A generational ban on the sale of tobacco is unnecessarily divisive because it will create a two-tier society in which some adults have different rights to others.
“Eventually it will create the absurd situation whereby a 40-year-old can purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products, but someone born a few days later could be denied the same right.”
He added, “MPs need to think very carefully about the unintended consequences of raising the legal age of sale of tobacco.
“Denying future generations of adults the right to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products legally won't stop people smoking. Creeping prohibition will simply drive the sale of tobacco underground and into the hands of criminal gangs and illicit traders.”
The Government is banning disposable vapes from 1 June, 2025 under separate environmental legislation. There is also a first of its kind vaping tax on the way, announced in Rachel Reeves' first Budget.
Supermarket Asda has hired its former Chief Executive Allan Leighton as its new Chairman to support efforts to revive the business after a difficult few years.
Leighton, 71, will replace another retail veteran, Lord Stuart Rose, who has held the role since 2021. Lord Rose was recently tasked with kickstarting Asda’s turnaround strategy after co-owner Mohsin Issa stepped down from running the business in September. Reports said he was heavily involved in efforts to appoint Leighton and will leave the business once the new Chairman is settled into the role.
While Leighton will be Asda’s Chairman for the foreseeable future, the retailer is continuing its long-running search for a Chief Executive.
Leighton spent five years running Asda between 1996 and 2001, during which time he oversaw the company’s sale to Walmart in 1999. He subsequently went on to become President of Loblaw Companies, North America’s second-largest food retailer, and spent nine years as Chairman of the Co-op.
Leighton said, “Stuart has done an important job in helping to create a retailer with a presence in every format and I am delighted to be returning to the business which has always been a special place for me.
"The potential for Asda now is significant, and my focus will be to work with the leadership team to help make Asda special for our colleagues and millions of customers.”
Lord Rose added, “Asda will benefit enormously from Allan’s experience of leading the business, and on behalf of the Board I am pleased to welcome him back. I look forward to continuing to support Asda as a shareholder and customer over the coming years.”
Gary Lindsay, Managing Partner of TDR Capital, said, “We would like to thank Stuart for the role he has played over the past three years and for the work he has done to help position Asda for long-term success. Asda today has both a leading superstore estate and a strong position in every format, and Allan’s experience and understanding of Asda will stand us in good stead as he leads the business into the next stage of its development. We are looking forward to working with Allan to help Asda deliver on its potential.”
Leighton’s arrival comes at a turbulent time for the UK’s third-largest supermarket, which is scrambling to turn around its fortunes following a prolonged run of falling sales and market share losses since being acquired by TDR Capital and the Issa brothers in 2021.
Earlier this month, Lord Rose said Asda had “lost the plot”, highlighting inadequate store standards, poor product availability and prices not as sharp as they have been in the past. But he said the business was fixable, and after taking charge, he cut back on home working for administrative staff and scrapped around 475 head office roles.
However, with Asda saddled with huge levels of debt, analysts suggested that Leighton faces a harder task turning around Asda now than during the rescue mission he took on in the Nineties.