Our look back at the the highs and many lows of 2020 in the East Midlands
Part Four – July-August:
Leicester Lockdown
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There was a brief few weeks of respite for the owners of pubs, restaurants and bars in Leicester who were told they could finally welcome back paying customers in early August.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was lifting restrictions which had stopped them reopening when the rest of the country moved closer to normality a few weeks earlier. Leicester was seen as a Covid-19 hotspot.
Hairdressers, barbers and hotels in the city would also be able to open for business, as would cinemas and theatres.
It came too late for one major venue – the Haymarket Theatre in the city centre went under in May with debts of more than £900,000.
The good news was shortlived though, as the second wave of the virus took hold and the country went back into various levels of lockdown.
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Boohoo
Management at under fire fashion retailer Boohoo promised to “act decisively” over allegations of exploitation in its supply chain in Leicester.
Announcing the scope of an independent review into its suppliers, the fast fashion giant said it wanted to “help restore confidence in the Leicester garment industry and increase transparency”.
The business took a PR hit after an undercover Sunday Times reporter said he found work in a Leicester factory making clothes destined for Boohoo which he said was paying workers just £3.50 an hour.
The Manchester-based group – whose brands include Boohoo, BoohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing and Nasty Gal – saw £1.7 billion wiped off its market value in a month as a result of negative publicity.
Companies such as Next and Asos also dropped Boohoo clothes from their websites.
Robinsons Caravans
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A Derbyshire firm which sells new and used caravans reported a sharp increase in sales during the coronavirus crisis.
Robinsons Caravans, based at Brimington, near Chesterfield, saw sales of caravans increase by nine per cent in June and 14% in July. And in June, the firm exceeded its sales targets for motorhomes by 250%.
The company was bought earlier this year by MBH Corporation, an investment holding company, which carried out its own research into 海角视频 holiday patterns, in light of restrictions on overseas travel.
It revealed that 2.5 million people had already had a caravan or motorhome holiday in the 海角视频 in the first half of this year, and a further 20 per cent were planning one or considering it.
Ibstock
海角视频 brick maker Ibstock said it suffered losses of £52 million in the first half of 2020 as a result of the lockdown.
The losses compared to a pre-tax profit of £41 million in the first half of 2019 – a £93 million difference.
The listed business said sales were down more than a third during the period, at £131 million, compared to £203 in the first half of 2019.
In a trading update it said it was continuing talks with staff about the potential loss of 375 jobs – around 15 per cent of its workforce – which it announced at the start of June and which were completed this year.
It said the cuts and closure or mothballing of three clay factories – including its Atlas site near Walsall in the West Midlands – would cost £10 million but lead to annual savings of £20 million.
Plans to invest £45 million in a new factory at the mothballed Atlas site – able to make 80 million bricks a year – were also on hold.
Based in north west Leicestershire, Ibstock is the 海角视频’s biggest brick maker, with revenues of £409 million in 2019.
However when Covid-19 hit in March it was forced to closed sites, gradually reopening them with new safety measures two months later.
Shoe Zone
The chief executive and chairman of the discount Shoe Zone chain extended their controlling stake in the company after buying the shares of an outgoing director.
CEO Anthony Smith and chairman Charles Smith acquired 234,375 ordinary shares in the Leicester-headquartered business through Sheepy Magna Investments – an investment vehicle which they each own half of.
They bought the shares from the Sharman Family Pension fund after Jeremy Sharman, a beneficiary in the fund, resigned as non-executive director from the Shoe Zone board.
Anthony Smith became chief executive – a position he also previously held – in 2019.
Earlier this year the business announced Charles Smith had become its permanent new chairman, having been appointed interim chairman in August 2019.
The business has its roots in the 1980s, when it was founded by the pair’s father and their uncle.
Frasers Group
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group revealed plans for an upmarket mega-store with a wide area dedicated to its Flannels brand and an esports gaming arena.
The group said it was launching a 90,000 sq ft site at Fosse Park, just south of Leicester, which it said would be split between Flannels and Sports Direct.
It will also include Evans cycles and an area for computer games events, under the Game brand.
It plans to open the new store concept in 2021 at a cost of more than £15 million. It will create up to 200 jobs.
Aldi
The Aldi supermarket chain gained permission to build a 1.3 million sq ft warehousing and office complex in the National Forest.
The chain said the national distribution hub in west Leicestershire – about five miles from the M1 and right in the centre of the country – could lead to 750 new jobs.
The warehouse on a 72 acre site at Nailstone Colliery, is 12 miles west of Leicester, and will stand around 100 ft high when built.
There would be around 100 HGV bays at the front and more than 40 at the rear.
The entrance will be linked by a bridge going over the loading area, and there will be around 600 car parking spaces as well as a 238 space HGV waiting area.
There will also be vehicle maintenance facilities, and substations to power it.
Leicester City
Leicester City said they had brought in a “brief pause” to their stadium expansion plans in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The club revealed that it would restart discussions on increasing capacity by the end of the year.
City wants to refurbish the ground on the edge of Leicester city centre and increase attendance to around 42,000.
In the past couple of years the club has already spent millions improving its main hospitality areas and boxes.
The most recent accounts showed £2.6 million had been invested in drawing up plans for the redevelopment, but the pandemic has seen progress halted.
The previous October a six-year loan of £91m was agreed between the club and King Power for infrastructure projects.
Leicester Haymarket Theatre
A new report showed the scale of money owed by Leicester Haymarket Theatre, which announced during the first lockdown that its doors would not be reopening.
It showed the city centre theatre owed more than £900,000 to ticketholders, suppliers and other businesses when it went bust.
The creditor’s report showed that included £300,000 owed to around 3,500 theatre-goers.
They were forced to either claim the cash back from credit card companies or Paypal or were still waiting to hear what percentage of their money they will see again.
Amounts owed to members of the public ranged from £6 up to more than £600.
The report showed the theatre owed £905,000 in total when it went under in May, including almost £285,000 to Haymarket Consortium, the group which relaunched the theatre two years ago, and more than £108,000 to banks and other institutions.
It owed a further £138,000 to trade creditors, around £10,000 to HMRC and £14,000 to the Department of Employment.