Scottish Business Briefing - Thursday June 25, 2009

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 09:23

WELCOME to scotsman.com's Scottish Business Briefing. Every morning we bring you a comprehensive round-up of all news affecting business in Scotland today.

BANKING & INSURANCE

Rice takes a cut as Lloyds profits slump

LLOYDS TSB Scotland, a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, has revealed that profits were down last year – but, unlike some of its peers, the bank was still in the black (Scotsman). Annual accounts for 2008, filed to Companies House yesterday, reveal that income during the year grew to 287.9 million, from 280.9m in 2007. However, pre-tax profits slumped 23 per cent to 89.8m from 116.8m in 2007. According to the report, Susan Rice, Lloyds TSB Scotland's chief executive and chairman, took a small decrease in pay. The report says the "highest paid director", assumed to be Rice, made 366,373 in 2008 down from 379,369 in 2007. She also received a slightly larger pension payment of 32,548, up from 27,817.

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Lees, Lees, more if you please …

SALES of meringues and new products, such as the Mini Easter Snowmallow Tub, have driven like-for-like sales at Lees Foods, up 14 per cent in the year to date (Scotsman). The macaroon bar maker estimated that sales in the period January to mid-June hit 8.5 million. Last year, sales hit 16.1m but this included figures from its baked goods division Patisserie, which folded last year. At its annual general meeting yesterday, the Aim-listed confectionery group said it expected profits for the first six months of the year to 30 June, would be ahead of the comparable figure for last year.

Crispy blend of two Scottish favourites

Two Scottish family-run farming businesses have joined forces to produce Scotland's only home-grown and manufactured premium potato crisps (Herald). Luxury ice-cream maker, Mackie's of Scotland, is working with Taypack, one of Britain's leading potato businesses, to create a new joint-venture company. The move will be the first expansion into the premium snack market for both companies. Each had separately identified a market opportunity in the premium crisps sector and, by choosing to work together, will combine their different strengths and experience, double their start-up investment and output capacity to enable them to enter the market with a total project cost of about 1.6m.

Read all today's food, drink and agriculture news from scotsman.com

MEDIA & LEISURE

Macdonald Hotels remains in the red but director optimistic

Macdonald Hotels remained deep in the red and increased its bank borrowings in the latest year when the economic slowdown posed challenges for leisure businesses, official filings show (Herald). However, Gordon Fraser, finance director, dismissed suggestions that the results raised questions about the health of the firm and said directors were confident about its prospects. Accounts for Macdonald Hotels filed at Companies House last week show the company made a pre-tax loss, before any gains on the sale of properties, of 11.4m in the year to September 2008. That compared with a loss of 16.4m in the previous year.

Read all today's media and leisure news from scotsman.com

RETAIL

Currys firm suffers 140.4m loss

The owner of Currys and PC World made an annual loss of 140.4m after closing parts of its business and writing down the value of some of its firms (BBC). DSG International saw like-for-like sales slump in the year to 2 May as customers cut back on electrical goods. And it added the "difficult economic backdrop across Europe and subsequent impact on consumer spending" was expected to continue. The firm wrote off 190.9m from its UK, Sweden and Finland businesses. Shares in DSG have fallen by about a third in the past year.

Read all today's retail news from scotsman.com

TRANSPORT

Souter attacks ministers over 'chaotic' dealings on rail cash

BRIAN Souter yesterday attacked the government's "chaotic" and "inconsistent" behaviour over rail franchise subsidies, ratcheting up the dispute with ministers which he claims could cost his company up to 200 million (Scotsman). The Stagecoach chief executive's outburst against the Department for Transport (DfT) was the latest escalation of the company's battle with ministers over revenue support for its South Western Trains (SWT) business. Souter's broadside, delivered on the day Stagecoach posted a 12.6 per cent rise in underlying annual profits to 196.4m (174.4m), came as he claimed that Stagecoach had a strong case in law against the government.

Read all today's transport news from scotsman.com

Scotsman Business Club

Get to the heart of the issues affecting Scottish business at www.scotsman.com/businessclub. Features include blogs from The Scotsman's formidable team of business writers - including Bill Jamieson, Martin Flanagan, Peter MacMahon and Scott Reid, a diary of forthcoming company announcements and networking events and video interviews with leading business experts covering a wide range of useful topics."