Scottish Business Briefing - Thursday 12 November, 2009

Published on Thursday 12 November 2009 07:48

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

Nationwide chief says Dunfermline brand under review

NATIONWIDE can offer no guarantees that the 140-year-old Dunfermline Building Society brand will not be scrapped in the long term, an influential board member said yesterday (Scotsman). Tony Prestedge, who is responsible for the Dunfermline business at Nationwide, told The Scotsman that the Scottish brand will be kept under "constant review". Prestedge said Nationwide, which acquired Dunfermline's savings and mortgage business in March, had no "immediate plans" to integrate its two brands in Scotland. But he warned: "Over time we will clearly revisit that. It is one of those things that will be constantly reviewed."

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

ENERGY & UTILITIES

SSE reveals interest in 4bn EDF bid

SCOTTISH & Southern Energy has confirmed that it is in the running to buy the electricity networks business of EDF, a deal likely to be worth more than 4 billion (Scotsman). Reporting bumper first-half profits, the Perth-based group indicated it might team up with infrastructure funds to buy the three electricity distribution networks, which deliver power to millions of customers in the south-east of England, including London. EDF, the French power giant that bought British Energy this year, has put the assets up for sale to free up cash for investment in new nuclear power stations in the UK.

Read all today's energy and utilities news from scotsman.com

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Drink price plan threat to 300 whisky jobs

WHISKY giant Whyte & Mackay could be forced to close its main Scottish bottling plant and shed 300 jobs if the SNP government goes ahead with plans for minimum alcohol pricing (Scotsman). The company has warned MSPs that it would be badly affected by proposals to introduce minimum drinks prices of 40p per unit of alcohol. Minimum pricing is part of a raft of measures by the SNP government aimed at tackling Scotland's terrible record on alcohol-linked health problems. Whyte & Mackay bosses claim such a move would undermine a key part of its business, making and bottling whisky for supermarkets' own-brand value labels.

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

INDUSTRY

BT profits hit by job loss costs

Telecommunications group BT has seen its half-year profits almost halve, due in part to the cost of redundancies (BBC). The company, which said earlier this year that it was cutting 15,000 jobs, made a pre-tax profit of 547m in the six months to 30 September. This is a 45% decline on the 991m profit it reported a year earlier. BT said the big fall in profit was also caused by a change in how it accounts for its pension deficit. The firm's half-year revenues were down 1%. The revenues declined to 10.357bn from 10.480bn a year earlier.

Read all today's industry news from scotsman.com

RETAIL

Sainsbury looks north with expansion plans

A SAINSBURY's expansion drive will be skewed to Scotland and the north of England, it said yesterday as the supermarket group became the second big retailer to warn a further rise in VAT is likely after the next election (Scotsman). Chief executive Justin King's comments came as Sainsbury's pleased the market with a robust interim trading performance, pre-tax profits climbing 32.6 per cent to 342 million. Like-for-like sales grew 5.7 per cent in the 28 weeks to 3 October. The group revealed that its expansion plans would create 10,000 jobs by March 2011.

Sales dip at 'cautious' WH Smith

Retailer WH Smith has said it remains "cautious" about trading after reporting a fall in sales. In the 10 weeks to 7 November, like-for-like sales at its High Street outlets - which excludes new store openings - declined 4% from last year (BBC). Same-store sales were also lower at its outlets in railway stations and airports, declining 2%. WH Smith said it was continuing to refocus on its core books and magazines offerings.

Read all today's retail 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."