The latest news affecting small and medium sized (SME) businesses in the UK
Applied Nutrition, the sports supplement maker founded by former Liverpool scaffolder Tom Ryder, has upgraded its sales and profit guidance for the third time this year, with revenue expected to jump 50 per cent to £160 million and the group closing in on a £1 billion stock market valuation.
Somers Forge, the Black Country maker of parts for naval vessels including nuclear submarines, says it will save up to £250,000 a year after forges were added to the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme, a change the Confederation of British Metalforming says makes most of its 200 member companies eligible for support.
Energy bills support will be back on the table at the budget, Andy Burnham has signalled, after Ofgem raised the price cap by 4 per cent from October, taking the typical household bill to £1,723 a year, with analysts at Cornwall Insight forecasting a further 9 per cent rise in January.
OnlyFans owner dividends ran past $700 million before Leonid Radvinsky died in March, with accounts at Fenix International, the London company behind the adult subscription site, showing pre-tax profit of $715 million on revenue of close to $1.6 billion and an average headcount of 47.
TikTok UK legal costs have climbed above $1 billion after the group increased the sum set aside for court cases and regulatory investigations, and the figure does not yet account for the coming ban on under-16s using social media or Ofcom’s live inquiry into the platform.
The taxpayer-backed National Wealth Fund is putting up to £71 million into Tungsten West, the Aim-listed company reviving the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in Devon, less than two years after the business warned it might not survive. In return the state takes a 7 per cent stake and an option over half the mine’s tungsten.
Retailers, hospitality firms and business groups have urged ministers to rethink planned reforms to zero-hours contracts, warning that new guaranteed hours rules could cost employers up to £2.9 billion a year and close off job opportunities for the young people they are meant to help.
A west London start-up has signed a first of its kind agreement with the US Maritime Administration to help build a fleet of nuclear-powered cargo ships. Core Power has raised 200 million dollars from Japanese backers and is targeting first construction of its propulsion systems in 2028.
The HMRC PAYE review covers around 45 million accounts, with P800 tax calculation letters already being issued and checks running until November 2026. Overpayments are being dealt with first, but workers claiming refunds across more than one year will now have to request the money themselves.
The Start Up Loans London total for female-founded businesses has passed £100m across 10,853 loans, with Hackney, Lewisham and Tottenham the capital’s busiest constituencies, and eligibility now widened to firms trading for up to five years.
The Phones 4u founder and the former Marks and Spencer chief executive have put their names to a campaign demanding the Chancellor reverse the taxes on entrepreneurs that its backers say are driving Britain’s business builders abroad, ahead of John Healey’s first Budget on 28 October.
Andy Burnham has ordered a business rates review of the way pubs and hotels are valued, appointing an expert who has called for “fundamental reform, not tinkering” to report to the Treasury by March 2027, in time for the findings to be applied at the next revaluation.
Restaurant group profits across Britain’s 100 largest operators have fallen by almost half in a year, to £204 million, as higher employers’ national insurance, a rising minimum wage and dearer ingredients eat into margins, even as combined sales climbed to £13.3 billion.
UK productivity growth has been far stronger than the official numbers show, according to new Resolution Foundation research which says flawed Office for National Statistics measurements have concealed a two year recovery in output per hour.
Uber GDPR fine: the Dutch Data Protection Authority says the ride hailing company breached European data rules by using automated systems to deactivate driver accounts without adequately informing them. Uber calls the penalty disproportionate and plans to appeal.
