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This week's business round up
Restructuring costs Corus £1bn
Steel group Corus has reported an operating loss of £1.152bn for the 15 months to December last year. The Anglo-Dutch company is blaming its recent restructuring programme for £1bn of the total losses. Last month Corus announced that it would cut 6,000 jobs, which will include shutting plants in Ebbw Vale and Bryngwyn in Wales and scaling back at Llanwern. www.corusgroup.com
Iceland says profits will fall by one third
Supermarket giant Iceland has predicted that its profits will fall by a third this year. Interim results showed that the company, which is carrying £550m in debts, has lowered its pre-tax profit target to £40m from £62m. Iceland expects its sales to fall by 3.7 per cent for the three months to 3 March. Earlier this year Iceland abandoned its organic food policy after incurring heavy losses. www.iceland.co.uk
UK to suffer as phone giants wield axe
Mobile phone giants Cable & Wireless and Motorola have announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs worldwide, including at least 2,000 in the UK. Cable & Wireless is to axe 4,000 jobs over the next 12 months with half of the cuts being made in the UK. Graham Wallace, chief executive of Cable and Wireless, said, “Certain sectors of Cable and Wireless Global’s market are experiencing severe price reductions. Our response is to reduce costs aggressively, focus our resources on higher margin revenue and accelerate the deployment of value added services, such as managed web and application hosting.” www.motorola.co.uk
