What brands were successful during the pandemic? Discover the most well-known companies that increased sales during the COVID-19 crisis.
The global pandemic caused a significant impact on millions of businesses worldwide. Lots of companies were thriving and were forced to shut down forever because of huge losses. However, there were numerous businesses that faced a boost in sales and profits during the pandemic. So, which companies remain successful even during the COVID-19 crisis? Let’s find out the answers.
Before You Start
Many students often search for information about the companies and brands that continue to be stable and prosperous during the pandemic. The reason is that this essay topic has become a common one in lots of colleges and universities. Who can write a paper for me? Are there any professionals who can write my essay online for cheap? These questions remain burning for lots of students. Fortunately, you can always get essay paper help and forget about all your academic issues. However, in case you still want to write an essay on such a challenging topic by yourself or just want to find the info for non-academic purposes, this post is right for you.
Top Businesses To Succeed During The Pandemic
COVID-19 crisis caused lots of changes in the global economy. Still, many companies had an uptick in sales even in such a tough time for most businesses. Discover who are these lucky beggars and industry leaders below.
Delivery Services
The pandemic made millions of people stay at home. However, every person still needed to buy various types of products regularly. So, which companies were the first ones to benefit from this situation? These are delivery services. The fact is that most customers preferred to get their orders delivered right to the doorstep with no need to visit supermarkets and shopping malls. Therefore, UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub were among the most popular services during the lockdown. Moreover, these industry leaders are likely to be on the rise in the nearest future, too.
Online Retailers
There is nothing new that most people preferred making purchases on Amazon and other famous online retailers rather than visit local shopping centers during the quarantine. Online shopping is still a fast, easy, and safe way to buy all the necessary goods with minimal risks to get COVID-19. By the way, not only the regular customers made more purchases, but online retailers had also attracted thousands of new clients.
Gaming
Game developing companies had a huge rise in profits during the pandemic. Most people didn’t have a chance to travel, meet friends, and visit public places. Therefore, lots of them just stuck to their gadgets playing various types of games. This means, many customers made purchases in online app stores, as well as tend to spend money for extra functions and options available in their favorite games.
However, online gaming was not the only niche that faced amazing profits. The manufacturers of board games and puzzles had a fantastic boost in sales, too. Big families were forced to stay at home for a long time, so many parents decided to buy board games to entertain each family member. For example, Puzzle Warehouse, one of the leading producers of puzzles worldwide, increased sales by a whopping 2000%!
In-home Workout Solutions
Visiting the gyms were not allowed during the lockdown. Nevertheless, thousands of people still wanted to remain in excellent shape and keep fit. Many people decided to create their individual gyms right at home and bought some equipment for daily workouts. For example, many individuals purchased yoga mats during the lockdown. Furthermore, many customers picked up some paid fitness apps and bought various subscriptions to do the exercises at home.
Online Communication Tools
Millions of people started working from home during the coronavirus crisis. However, the co-workers still needed to keep in touch with each other, communicate, and discuss lots of important issues to remain productive. Online communication has become an inevitable part of the lives of thousands of people in different countries. Messaging, making calls, and arranging online meetings were the most demanding tools for lots of businesses. As for the brands that showed rapid growth during the pandemic, Zoom has become a perfect alternative for communication between the members of big and small teams.
Hand-Sanitizing Products
Keeping safe has become the number one goal for all people globally. One of the ways that reduced the spread of COVID-19 was using hand sanitizing products. Therefore, the manufacturers of sanitizers and wet wipes were among those businesses that continued to succeed even during the quarantine.
All in all, the pandemic changed the lives of millions of people in all countries worldwide. Many individuals lost their jobs and were forced to close their businesses, while others appeared to be incredibly successful. Anyway, the world is not likely to be the same again, so the only thing we can do is to adapt and get used to new environments.
An undercover operation conducted by Japan Tobacco International (JTI) in Leeds has revealed the abundant presence of illicit tobacco and vapes in the region, with 43 illegal products found across 18 stores.
The exercise, which involved operatives making multiple test purchases across the city, has highlighted how rife illicit tobacco and vape products are in the area. Of the 18 stores visited, all had illicit tobacco or vapes available, with 12 of these stores located in the Labour Chancellor’s constituency of Leeds West and Pudsey.
Operatives on the ground had no difficulties purchasing contraband vapes, with eight products obtained, including one vape boasting a puff count of 15,000 – 25 times over the legal limit.
Nine of the 18 stores visited are known to be repeat offenders, having sold illegal tobacco to operatives during previous operations last year. Since the start of 2022, JTI has identified 59 retailers selling illegal tobacco or vapes in Leeds.
All evidence and information gathered has been made available to Trading Standards in the anticipation that it will support their efforts to enforce and prosecute anyone found to be selling illegal products.
“Once more, our undercover operations have exposed the stark reality of the illicit tobacco and vape trade in the UK," said Ian Howell, Public Affairs Manager at JTI UK,. "The vast availability of illicit products is a crisis on our streets and is increasingly happening in the open.
“The fact that you can easily walk into a store and purchase a vape with a puff count 25 times the legal limit is outrageous and needs to be taken more seriously by the Government. With data showing that Illicit tobacco spending in the UK is now twice as large as spending on illegal narcotics1, action must be taken from the top down to stamp out this worrying trend, which is impacting the sales of legitimate retailers and opening the door for criminal activity in our communities.
“Instead of implementing the impractical generational smoking ban, which will only play straight into the hands of criminals and exacerbate illicit trade, the Government should focus on removing illicit products from our streets and supporting honest retailers to tackle this growing issue.”
The operation also bought 12 packs of illicit Ready-Made-Cigarettes (RMC) and 23 packs of 50g illicit Roll-Your-Own (RYO). The typical price for illicit RMC on the day was £5, with the operatives’ most expensive purchase being £7. For comparison, the recommended retail price of JTI’s lowest price RMC product is £12.75.
The Policing Minister Diana Johnson has vowed to crackdown on rising retail crime with tough new measures including six months jail time for assault on shopworkers, reversal of the "Shoplifters’ Charter" and £5 million investment to crack down on organised shoplifting gangs.
Speaking at the Cooperative Party’s Retail Crime Summit in London today (12), Johnson said, “there is no place for anyone who abuses shopworkers, and we are changing the law to come after” perpetrators and declare that the “era of criminals acting with impunity” is over.
Johnson said the current government is to remove the 2014 shoplifting legislation, which makes shop theft involving property with a value of £200 or less a summary-only offence. Shoplifters’ Charter, that was introduced in 2014, brought in to describe the theft of goods worth under £200, meaning the police would not routinely investigate crimes below this threshold.
An extra £5 million will be invested over three years to crack down on organised shoplifting gangs, funding a specialist analysis team within the National Policing Unit for serious Organised Acquisitive Crime. That project is already making an impact with 152 prolific people involved in organised retail crime identified in its first three months. An additional £2 million over three years will also be spent in the National Business Crime Centre, providing a vital resource for both police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime.
Labour will legislate for assaults against retail workers a new stand-alone offence, as it has called for over the last decade.
Additionally, the Labour government will put policing back into town centres, high streets, and communities. It will restore guaranteed patrols in retail crime hotspots and mean shopkeepers and retail staff have a named officer to turn to when nuisance comes calling.
Shoplifting reached a record high in the year to June, with 469,788 offences reported to police—a nearly 29 percent increase from last year’s 365,173 incidents.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), this is double the rate seen in 2020 during the pandemic, averaging over 9,000 offences a week, 1,290 a day, or more than two per minute, based on typical UK store hours of 10 hours per day. These figures mark the highest levels since records began in March 2003, with retailers warning that the crisis now adds at least 6p to each customer transaction.
British Retail Consortium estimates that £1.8 billion worth of items are stolen each year, with a further £700 million spent on extra security.
The alcohol industry’s Independent Complaints Panel (ICP) has announced the appointment of a new Panel member.
Following a rigorous and highly competitive recruitment process, Martin Machray has been appointed to the Panel and will sit in his first meeting on 28 November. He will replace outgoing member Angela McNab.
Martin is currently the Director responsible for improvement, transformation and partnerships across the NHS in London. He qualified as a general nurse in 1989 and since then he has held senior roles in hospitals, commissioning, the Department of Health and the NHS.
He’s held a variety of roles in the NHS including Regional Chief Nurse and, during the pandemic was the Incident Director for London. Now much of his role is working with partners from all sectors of the capital, including Local Authorities, the Greater London Authority and the community and voluntary sector.
As well as his professional qualification, Martin also has a Masters degree in Public Sector Administration from Aston University.
The Panel is chaired by Rachel Childs and new members are carefully recruited in order to represent a cross section of society with a balance of experience and expertise in key areas such as licensing, public health, children’s services and law.
The ICP is independent from the Portman Group and considers complaints brought forward on the naming, packaging, promotion and sponsorship of alcoholic drinks based on the Portman Group’s Codes of Practice. The Panel meet several times a year to consider these complaints and decide whether they are upheld or not upheld based on evidence.
“I am thrilled to announce Martin’s appointment to the Panel, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him," said Childs. "He has a truly impressive breadth of experience and knowledge in public health, which I have no doubt will make him an asset to the Panel. This was a very competitive recruitment process with an exceptionally high calibre of candidates, so I’d also like to thank all of the applicants involved, as well as Angela for her service to the Panel.”
Cigarettes seized in South Armagh, Northern Ireland
Four men have been arrested after the seizure of more than 11 million cigarettes in South Armagh, HMRC said.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), supported by Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), seized the cigarettes, worth an estimated £6 million in duty and taxes, on 4 November.
Officers searched two premises near Newry and found 11.5 million non-UK duty paid cigarettes.
They also seized a number of vehicles, fuel laundering equipment and 400 litres of illegal fuel.
Four men, aged between 23 and 33, were arrested and released on bail. Investigations into the seizure are continuing, the agency added.
“The trade in illicit cigarettes and tobacco damages funding for essential public services and undermines legitimate traders including small, independent shops that serve local communities,” Dermot Clarke, operational lead, fraud investigation service, HMRC, said.
“We continue to work closely with our partners to relentlessly pursue the determined minority who refuse to play by the rules.”
Superintendent Norman Haslett, district commander for Newry, Mourne and Down, added: “This is an incredibly significant seizure and shows that we are committed to working with our partners to keep communities safe in Northern Ireland.
“We remain resolute in our efforts to put those suspected of profiting from criminality before the courts.”
Industrial action at Bakkavor, a large supplier of the fish roe dip, has caused a “short disruption” to the supply and availability of taramasalata at supermarkets across the country, recent reports state today (12).
Employees at Bakkavor’s Spalding site in the Midlands launched strike action about six weeks ago over pay. Tubs of own-brand taramasalata were out of stock online at Waitrose, Sainbury’s and Tesco, the UK’s largest grocer. The Marks & Spencer dip was also unavailable at Ocado online.
Bakkover said: “There has been a short disruption to our supply of taramasalata, but drawing on the skills based across 21 UK sites, production steps up again next week.”
Bakkavor added that the strike action would not have a long-term effect on food supply and that its Christmas ranges were manufactured at the company’s other sites.
The British Retail Consortium acknowledged there were taramasalata availability issues but said retailers were “adept at managing supply to ensure the impact on customers is kept to a minimum and they can purchase goods as normal”, The Guardian reported.
According to the Unite union, workers at the company’s Spalding site are demanding a pay rise of 81p an hour and most workers at the site are paid £11.54 an hour.
In a statement issued last week, Donna-Maria Lee, chief people officer at Bakkavor, disputed Unite’s claim that the company had carried out years of real-term pay cuts. She said Bakkavor’s pay offer was “well above the national living wage and inflation”, and added that the pay rate for the lowest-paid workers had risen by 22.8 per cent, and by 21.2 per cent for everyone else.