Tuesday newspaper round-up: Starling Bank, Asos, Morrisons
Staff have resigned at Starling Bank after its new chief executive demanded thousands of workers attend its offices more regularly, despite lacking enough space to host them. In his first major policy change since taking over from the UK digital bank’s founder, Anne Boden, in March, Raman Bhatia has ordered all hybrid staff – many of whom were in the office only one or two days a week, or on an ad-hoc basis – to travel to work for a minimum of 10 days each month. – Guardian
Asos has been accused of rewarding its chief executive for “spectacular failure” after giving him a £300,000 pay rise even as the online fast-fashion retailer cut jobs and recorded widening losses. José Antonio Ramos Calamonte’s total pay rose from £814,000 to £1.17m in 2024, a 44% increase, according to its annual report, published on Monday. – Guardian
Dozens of Britain’s biggest retailers have warned Rachel Reeves that her plans to hike National Insurance will cause staff to be laid off and shops to be shut. Major companies including Tesco, M&S, Boots and B&Q have written to the Chancellor saying that job losses were now “inevitable”, as a result of the “sheer scale” of the new costs on business. – Telegraph
The private equity-owned supermarket chain Wm Morrison has almost halved its hefty debt burden as part of a turnaround effort under its new boss. Britain’s fifth-largest grocer, which was saddled with debt after its takeover by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) in 2021, said it had paid down a further £200 million of borrowings and extended the maturity of its revolving credit facility to 2030, reducing its overall leverage levels. The restructuring also included extending its term loan facilities from 2027 to 2030. – The Times
Levying big fines on big tech companies is not an effective way of keeping them in line, the UK’s privacy chief has said, in comments that have prompted a backlash from data privacy experts and transparency campaigners. John Edwards, the information commissioner, said that issuing penalties in the hundreds of millions of pounds, as his counterparts in Europe do, would only tie up his office in litigation. – The Times