Wednesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Spirit AeroSystems, Flutter
The Post Office is expected to announce the closure of dozens of branches and cut up to 1,000 head office jobs as it seeks to reduce costs to secure its financial future. There are about 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK, of which 115 are wholly centrally owned. The rest are operated by independent post office operators under contract and partners such as WH Smith and Tesco. – Guardian
Young people from working-class backgrounds are being “blocked” from entering the creative industries, which remain “elitist” and inaccessible, according to research. A report from the Sutton Trust found stark overrepresentation in the arts for those from the most affluent backgrounds, which it defines as those from “upper middle-class backgrounds”. – Guardian
Rachel Reeves’s inheritance tax raid will deliver a “fatal blow” to farming, the boss of one of Britain’s biggest food producers has warned. Ranjit Singh Boparan, the tycoon nicknamed the “Chicken King”, blasted the Chancellor’s Budget as a “disaster for business” and said it risked pushing up inflation further for households. – Telegraph
Spirit AeroSystems, one of the largest private-sector employers in Northern Ireland, is to receive about $450 million in advance payments from Boeing and Airbus after the supplier raised the alarm about its finances. The struggling company has agreed up to $350 million in advance payments from Boeing, the American aerospace company. Airbus, the European planemaker, will pay up to $107 million. – The Times
Strong demand for sports betting in the US at the start of the National Football League season helped Flutter Entertainment surpass analyst expectations to report 27 per cent quarterly sales growth. The world’s largest online betting company, which moved its primary listing from London to New York this year, recorded revenue of $3.25 billion for the three months to the end of September, up from $2.56 billion a year earlier and ahead of analyst expectations of $3.03 billion. Revenue in the US rose 51 per cent year-on-year to $1.25 billion. In the UK and Ireland, revenue grew 18 per cent to $846 million. – The Times