This is an audio transcript of the Behind the Money podcast episode: ‘Why Volkswagen hit the skids’

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Michela Tindera
Earlier this month, the FT’s Patricia Nilsson hopped on a train to go to a small city in Germany called Wolfsburg. 

Patricia Nilsson
It’s quite a modest town. It’s not a, you know, it doesn’t look particularly rich. 

Michela Tindera
But Wolfsburg is known best for being the headquarters of Europe’s largest carmaker, Volkswagen. 

Patricia Nilsson
When you roll into Wolfsburg, you see the company’s old power plant. So there are these four large chimneys as it is the image of German industry. The town is very much shaped by the factory and life around it. 

Michela Tindera
There’s even a Volkswagen-themed park called the Autostadt. Tourists can test drive new car models on all train tracks or visit a museum dedicated to the company’s history. And people come from other places in the country to get a job at Volkswagen. People like Benny Littau . . . 

[PATRICIA AND BENNY SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

Michela Tindera
On her trip, Patricia went to the offices of the Volkswagen Workers Union, where she met Benny, who’s been with VW for more than 20 years. 

Patricia Nilsson
So Benny told me he joined Volkswagen as a trainee in 2002. So he’s worked at the company for quite a while. 

Michela Tindera
Today, Benny works in a factory in Wolfsburg that makes the Golf one of Volkswagen’s all-time best-selling cars. 

Patricia Nilsson
And he told me that growing up, working at Volkswagen was, you know, an obvious choice to a lot of people. I mean, everyone knew that a lot of people would end up there. He himself actually said that he never really wanted to work at Volkswagen because it’s seen as quite hard labour. But that’s where he ended up. 

Michela Tindera
Volkswagen is Germany’s largest private employer. So there are a lot of people like Benny, who for a long time have relied on the security of a VW job. 

[BENNY SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

Patricia Nilsson
He told me that when the financial crisis came around, he was very happy to be there, felt very safe to be there. He told me that he has a lot of friends who work at other companies who have lost jobs when financial crises rolled around. And that has never been the case with Volkswagen. 

[BENNY SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

Patricia Nilsson
He told me that there used to be a saying in his family, go to Volkswagen and you’ll be secure. 

Michela Tindera
But recently that security has been threatened.

News clip
At a special meeting of the workforce at its headquarters. VW executives told employees that the company may have to close factories in Germany. 

News clip
This is a historic move being considered, of course, by VW to shutter factories in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history. 

Michela Tindera
These proposed measures throw the feature into question for both an iconic German brand and the people who work for it like Benny Littau.  

Patricia Nilsson
Volkswagen has been a symbol of Germany’s postwar industrial growth. Its miraculous postwar industrial growth, as many people have called it. And if Volkswagen will start laying people off, closing factories and saying that you can’t produce things as competitively as you could in the past in Germany. That will have massive impacts, just not just on Germany’s economy and especially the economy of places like Wolfsburg. It will also have a big impact on how the country views itself. 

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Michela Tindera
I’m Michela Tindera from the Financial Times. Volkswagen is considering taking an unprecedented step, closing German factories for the first time in decades. Today on Behind the Money, what’s gone wrong at Volkswagen and what these struggles say about Germany’s position as Europe’s industrial giant.

First off, let’s get something clarified. 

Patricia Nilsson
It’s important to distinguish between Volkswagen Group, which is the sort of parent company that has 10 different car brands, and Volkswagen brand. And it’s the Volkswagen brand in particular that’s doing pretty badly right now. 

Michela Tindera
The Volkswagen brand is very important to its parent, the Volkswagen Group, which also has names like Audi and Porsche. That’s because the VW brand produces roughly half of the total cars made by the whole Volkswagen Group. So when business is bad for Volkswagen brand, that’s bad for the entire company. And lately, Patricia says the VW brand has been dealing with high costs and profit margins that have been lower than what analysts, investors and management have wanted. 

Patricia Nilsson
The CFO of Volkswagen Group said something quite strong, which is that he believes that the company only has one or maybe two years to turn things around. That obviously spurs the question: What will happen if they don’t manage to reduce costs at Volkswagen? 

Michela Tindera
It’s the biggest crisis for the company since, well . . . 

News clip
The EPA recently announced that Volkswagen cheated on emissions test, allowing almost half a million badly polluting diesel cars onto America’s roads.

News clip
The company admits it rigged 11mn vehicles worldwide to cheat on emissions tests. 

Michela Tindera
Dieselgate. Remember that? A quick refresher, in 2015, US regulators found that Volkswagen had installed software in millions of its cars that could cheat emissions tests. The scandal was a huge blow to Volkswagen. The company paid out over €32bn in legal fees and fines related to the cover-up. 

Patricia Nilsson
One important effect of Dieselgate was that it meant gaining market share and making money in the US was probably not going to happen for quite a long time. Volkswagen sort of said, OK, we want to leave that behind and really threw itself into EV technology and investing big time in electric vehicles. 

Michela Tindera
Plus, in 2022, the EU announced that the sale of new combustion engine vehicles would be banned by 2035. So VW poured billions of dollars into this new EV strategy. 

Patricia Nilsson
They’re trying to develop their own batteries. They even set up their own software company. So they’ve gone in big on investing in future technologies. 

Michela Tindera
But after spending so much on this investment, it just hasn’t panned out. 

Patricia Nilsson
Let’s not forget that engines, I mean, engineering, that’s what German carmaking was all about. That’s what they were best at. Now, with the shift towards EVs, competitive advantage is more given by good software or good batteries. And Volkswagen and other German carmakers, that’s just not what they’re best at. At the same time, in Europe and in Germany specifically, sales of EVs in the past year have been much lower than expected. 

Michela Tinder
Slower sales of EVs is something that car companies in the US and Europe are having to reckon with right now. But for Volkswagen, that’s just part of the problem. The other problem has to do with demand in China. 

Patricia Nilsson
Volkswagen has a very special relationship with China. In the late ‘80s, it was one of the first western companies that entered the country. And for years, for decades, it’s been the largest foreign carmaker in China. That means that for a very long time, the money that Volkswagen was making in China to some extent has been masking lower margins in its home market. Some people even say that these well-paid jobs in Wolfsburg have for a long time been paid by Chinese consumers. 

Michela Tindera
But lately, the brand has lost some of its appeal among those Chinese consumers. 

Patricia Nilsson
You know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, owning a German car was high status. But that is not really the case any more. Younger consumers are much more likely to want to have a Chinese car. So you see, for example, brands such as BYD, which have been rapidly increasing their market share. 

Michela Tindera
With China profits disappearing, issues elsewhere are becoming more apparent. 

Patricia Nilsson
At the same time, we’re also seeing overall car sales sort of slip. One figure that’s Arnault Anlitz, the CFO of Volkswagen, cited was that Volkswagen itself, the group, is selling half a million fewer cars in Europe annually. And he said, you know, this market is gone and it’s not coming back. 

Michela Tindera
Part of the reason for that is the broader cost of living crisis that Europeans are facing at the moment. 

Patricia Nilsson
People just don’t have that much money to make such big purchases. You’ve also seen that since the pandemic when there was a massive shortage of semiconductors, the average car prices just sort of shot up. And so cars have also become significantly more expensive since. A lot of families are saying, OK, perhaps we don’t need two cars, perhaps we will have one car. 

Michela Tindera
So with all these problems mounting, the companies tried to adapt. Last year, Volkswagen launched a big restructuring program to boost margins, but it hasn’t worked. Instead, margins have continued to fall. 

Patricia Nilsson
And earlier this month, it was leaked that the boss of the Volkswagen brand had warned that the cost-cutting wasn’t enough and they were going to have to turn to more extreme measures. 

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Michela Tindera
Coming up, we’ll take a closer look at the battle brewing between Volkswagen management and the company’s German workers.

[LIFE AND ART FROM FT WEEKEND PODCAST TRAILER PLAYING]

During tough times, workers of Volkswagen like Benny Littau have made concessions so people can keep their jobs.

[BENNY SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

Patricia Nilsson
OK. So about two years ago his factories stopped having a night shift. And one way that’s relieving, Benny told me that, of course, working nights is hard on the body, hard for your mental health. But on the other side, night shifts also pay better. So this means that workers that have lost their night shifts have taken effective pay cuts, sometimes losing up to hundreds of euros each month. 

Michela Tindera
But when the news came of potential factory closures, it was a shock. 

[BENNY SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

Patricia Nilsson
Benny, told me that a lot of his colleagues are scared. Some people are struggling to pay their mortgages. Other people are responsible for their families and are not really sure how they’re going to manage going forward. 

Michela Tindera
Earlier this month, in addition to the news about the factories, there was also news that the company was tossing out a three-decade-old job security agreement that was supposed to last through 2029. So, Patricia, why does the company say that it needs to take these measures now after, you know, so many years and so many challenges? 

Patricia Nilsson
The company is saying that this is not a short-term crisis. They are saying they will be producing fewer cars in the future and need less capacity, and that’s that. So Volkswagen’s flagship brand last year said it would have to save €10bn by 2026 in order to boost its margins. And that program relied on, you know, what is frequently referred to as the demographic transition, meaning that they’re waiting for people from the boomer generation to retire and they’re not replacing them. But what happened now in September was it turned out that management is saying these cost cuts have not been enough. They’re still several billion euros short. And they’re saying that in order to save this company, they need to take more drastic action. If you talk to analysts, investors, there are a lot of watchers who are saying that this is going to be painful, these cost cuts are going to be painful, but they have to be done. 

Michela Tindera
Both Volkswagen’s union, which is called IG Metall and the Works Council, which is the group that represents workers on VW’s board, strongly opposed shutting down factories and laying off workers. So what do they say to all this? 

Patricia Nilsson
So Daniela Cavallo, who is the chair of Volkswagen’s powerful Works Council, she unsurprisingly, is saying that with her there, there will not be any job cuts, there will not be any factory closures.

People like Cavallo is saying that the issues that Volkswagen is having right now are not workers’ faults, but rather faults committed by management years ago. So specifically, they have accused executives at Volkswagen of not having made the right decisions when it comes to investing in hybrid vehicles, for example, which are proving quite popular right now. And most importantly, people like Cavallo are saying cutting jobs won’t address the main issue, which is the lagging demand for Volkswagen cars. The Works Council is sort of saying that it sounds like the company is giving up, that Volkswagen should be fighting now to regain market share and maintain its position as Europe’s largest carmaker and as a very important brand in China as well. 

Michela Tindera
What would you say is next in this battle between management and the Works Council? 

Patricia Nilsson
This is going to be a big fight and it’s going to be months before it’s resolved. And no matter who wins, it will have a ripple effect across Germany and for other companies that have for years, for decades coexisted with their Works Council, where decisions have been made together with the Works Council. The question really here is, can this model survive at this moment of crisis in Europe? 

Michela Tindera
Besides the cost-cutting, though, does the company have any other plans to turn things around? 

Patricia Nilsson
Well, the relatively new chief executive, Oliver Blume, he has outlined a plan. Volkswagen has made very big investments in China recently where they have developed this in China for China strategy which basically means that there are joint ventures and the country should be able to make decisions faster and not have to run everything by Wolfsburg. The company also recently made a $5bn deal to create a joint venture with Rivian, a US maker of electric pick-up trucks, which the company says will hopefully solve its problems with software. Although it seems like it might be a little bit more complicated than that. So the company is investing for the future. There is a plan, but whether that plan works out will depend a lot on what happens to demand in Europe and in China. 

Michela Tindera
What happens if they just can’t turn it around? 

Patricia Nilsson
It’s a very good question because Volkswagen is essentially too big to fail. I really can’t imagine a future where the company would go bankrupt or anything like that. I mean, it is Germany’s largest private employer and Lower Saxony, the state where its headquarters are based owns a stake in the company as well. So I can’t imagine it going bankrupt. But the question, of course, is how will the company adapt to the future? 

Michela Tindera
If these manufacturing jobs disappear. Patricia says there are some people who are even talking about deindustrialisation, that cities and towns in Germany could turn into something like America’s Rust Belt. 

Patricia Nilsson
When I was in Wolfsburg, I went to bar one night and I met this man who quite gloomily said to me that without Volkswagen, Wolfsburg would end up like Flint. Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors. And General Motors employed tens of thousands of people in Flint in the 1980s. Its executives started saying something very similar to what Volkswagen’s executives are saying today, which was we can no longer produce cars competitively in our hometown, especially not since we’re facing competition from Asian rivals that have much lower costs. This was the time when Japanese carmakers and South Korean carmakers started pushing into western markets. And since then, Flint is among many in the industrialised cities that have sort of gone from financial crisis to financial crisis. And that says something about the importance of these companies and the jobs that they provide to local communities but also to the economies of entire regions. 

Michela Tindera
When Patricia talked with Benny about what might happen to Wolfsburg if Volkswagen were to let people go . . . 

[BENNY SPEAKING IN FRENCH]

Michela Tindera
He told her, if there’s no future for the people here, then they go somewhere else and this whole region is dead. It all depends on Volkswagen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Behind the Money is hosted by me, Michela Tindera. Saffeya Ahmed is our producer. Sound design and mixing by Sam Giovinco. Topher Forhecz is our executive producer. Special thanks to Dan Stewart. Cheryl Brumley is the global head of audio. Original music is by Hannis Brown. Thanks for listening. See you next week. 

MARTIN Lewis has issued a message to all pensioners over winter fuel payments.

The MoneySavingExpert (MSE) founder is urging households to check if they could be entitled to Pension Credit and unlock the winter fuel payment.

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Pension Credit is a government benefit made up of two parts, with one designed to top up your weekly income to a minimum amount.

Ordinarily, you have to be earning under around £218 a week if you are single or roughly £333 a week if you are a couple to qualify.

However, you can still qualify if you earn over these amounts and meet certain other criteria like being on disability benefits, needing extra money to cover housing costs or having a certain amount of savings stashed away.

In the latest MSE newsletter, Martin is urging pensioners not to assume that they won’t qualify.

He said: “Pension Credit is a critically underclaimed top-up of the state pension for those on lower incomes that I’ve been urging people to check out for over a decade.

“On average it’s worth £3,900 a year. Yet over 800,000 eligible pensioners likely still miss out.”

Martin added that it’s more important than ever check your eligibility for pension credit because it qualifies you for the winter fuel payment.

This is because in July the Government announced that only those who claim Pension Credit will receive the Winter Fuel Allowance, which is worth up to £300 a year.

It comes after one Martin Lewis fan has revealed how a quick check helped her mother realise she was eligible for Pension Credit.

Those who claim are also entitled to a free TV licence, help with NHS dental treatment and glasses.

What is Pension Credit and who is eligible?

Pension Credit is a government benefit designed to top up your weekly income if you are a state pensioner and on a low income.

The current state pension age is 66.

There are two parts to the benefit – Guarantee Credit and Savings Credit.

Guarantee Credit tops up your weekly income to £218.15 if you are single or your joint weekly income to £332.95 if you have a partner.

Savings Credit is extra money you can get if you have some savings or your income is above the basic state pension amount – £169.50.

Savings Credit is only available to people who reached state pension age before April 6, 2016.

Usually, you only qualify for Pension Credit if your income is below the £218.15 or £332.95 thresholds.

However, you can sometimes be eligible for Savings Credit or Guarantee Credit depending on your circumstances.

For example, if you are suffering from a severe disability and claiming Attendance Allowance, as well as other benefits, you can get an extra £81.50 a week.

Meanwhile, you can get either £66.29 a week or £76.79 a week for each child you’re responsible and caring for.

The rules behind who qualifies for Pension Credit can be complicated, so the best thing to do is just check.

You can do this by using the Government’s Pension Credit calculator on its website.

Or, you can call the Pension Service helpline on 0800 99 1234 from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

Those in Northern Ireland have to call the Pension Centre on 0808 100 6165 from 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday.

It might be worth a visit to your local Citizens Advice branch too – its staff should be able to offer you help for free.

What is the Winter Fuel Payment?

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Consumer reporter Sam Walker explains all you need to know about the payment.

The Winter Fuel Payment is an annual tax-free benefit designed to help cover the cost of heating through the colder months.

Most who are eligible receive the payment automatically.

Those who qualify are usually told via a letter sent in October or November each year.

If you do meet the criteria but don’t automatically get the Winter Fuel Payment, you will have to apply on the government’s website.

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You’ll qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment this winter if:

• you were born on or before September 23, 1958
• you lived in the UK for at least one day during the week of September 16 to 22, 2024, known as the “qualifying week”
• you receive Pension Credit, Universal Credit, ESA, JSA, Income Support, Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit

If you did not live in the UK during the qualifying week, you might still get the payment if both the following apply:

• you live in Switzerland or a EEA country
• you have a “genuine and sufficient” link with the UK social security system, such as having lived or worked in the UK and having a family in the UK

But there are exclusions – you can’t get the payment if you live in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal or Spain.

This is because the average winter temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK.

You will also not qualify if you:

• are in hospital getting free treatment for more than a year
• need permission to enter the UK and your granted leave states that you can not claim public funds
• were in prison for the whole “qualifying week”
• lived in a care home for the whole time between 26 June to 24 September 2023, and got Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance

Payments are usually made between November and December, with some made up until the end of January the following year.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners has taken a board seat at Rentokil Initial, just two weeks after a profit warning sent shares in the pest control company down by a fifth.

Trian, an activist investor with a 2.3 per cent stake in the group, has appointed its head of research Brian Baldwin to the company’s board as a non-executive director.

London-listed Rentokil has been struggling with the integration of its US business Terminix, which it acquired for $6.7bn in 2021, and earlier this month issued a profit warning.

Rentokil’s chair Richard Solomons welcomed the appointment, saying he was looking forward to working with Trian, in particular on plans to integrate the Terminix business, “and to increase organic growth in our North America operations”.

Baldwin, who will join the board in less than a week, said there was “significant potential and runway for growth that can be achieved by leveraging its strong brands and market leading positions, particularly in the US”.

Rentokil warned earlier this month that troubles in its North America business would shave about £50mn from its operating earnings, sending its shares down by a fifth and wiping more than £2bn from the company’s market value.

It said adjusted profits before tax and amortisation this year would be about £700mn, lower than the £766mn it made last year.

Chief executive Andy Ransom attributed the downgrade to a poorly executed turnaround plan and slow integration of its new US branches. The US accounts for more than half of group sales.

The company previously issued a profit warning relating to its US business last October. The warning that a difficult consumer environment had hit demand in its key market sent shares down 20 per cent.

But Rentokil’s shares recovered in June after it emerged that Trian had taken a stake in the group. Peltz’s fund is known for launching turnaround campaigns at consumer goods companies including Kraft Heinz, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Shares in Rentokil were up more than 3 per cent in early trading on Wednesday.

Peltz has also previously taken a stake in UK plumbing and heating equipment supplier Ferguson.

Rentokil said on Wednesday that Trian owns about 57.1mn shares in the company, amounting to a 2.3 per cent stake.

There’s no escaping the fact that the last two decades have represented a revolution in the way we manage our money. You don’t have to go back far to see transactions made primarily in cash for example, with bills paid via cheques sent through the post.

Technology has had an impact not just on our day-to-day finances, but on the bigger financial landscapes too, changing the way we save and invest, manage our pensions and buy and sell property. Let’s take a look at how technology can be used to streamline our experience of the housing market.

Budgeting and expense tracking

Before you can even think about buying a new home, you’ll need to get on top of your income and expenditure to see how much you can afford to spend and to prepare for any mortgage application you might need to make.

Gone are the days though when personal finance was managed solely with spreadsheets and notebooks. Digital budgeting and saving apps like WithPlum.com have revolutionised how people manage their day-to-day expenses, meaning you can now automatically categorise spending, set financial goals and manage your bills all from your phone.

Once you know where you stand, you can go online to search and compare mortgage deals and work out how much you’ll be able to borrow and where to get the best deal.

Different ways to buy and sell

Technology has created a whole host of new ways to buy and sell property, from online estate agents to cash home-buying services like Sold.co.uk. This platform offers a streamlined process for selling properties, leveraging technology to connect with sellers, and eliminating many of the traditional hurdles associated with property sales, such as lengthy paperwork and prolonged waiting periods.

Digital property marketplaces

Twenty years ago we’d never have imagined that it would be possible to take a tour of a house without even leaving your sofa, yet now we have access to all kinds of amazing tools plus real-time market data, meaning buyers can make much more informed decisions. Digital property marketplaces have simplified the process of buying and selling homes. With so many competing pressures on our time and money nowadays, being able to browse and shortlist potential new homes online is incredibly valuable.

Automating the homebuying process

Automation in property transactions is another way in which technology is helping to reduce the time and effort required to complete a sale. Features such as automated valuation models (AVMs) and electronic document management systems from ThomsonReuters.co.uk streamline the process, making it more transparent and less prone to errors.

Credit: Unsplash

Future trends

With the use of AI increasing exponentially, and the use of blockchain technology becoming more widely accepted, we’re sure to see all kinds of advances and innovations in the property market over the next few years. For instance, AI could provide even more personalised financial advice, while blockchain technology could enhance the security and transparency of property transactions.

The digital revolution is undeniably reshaping the landscape of personal finance and property transactions and as technology continues to advance, embracing these digital tools will be crucial for anyone looking to manage their finances more effectively and make the most of their assets.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday in its first major missile launch since twin hypersonic weapons tests in the summer of 2021.

The test comes as the People’s Liberation Army is conducting intensive air and naval drills around the region ahead of a call between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden expected in the coming weeks.

The ICBM carrying a dummy warhead was launched into international waters at 8.44am, China’s defence ministry said, adding that it was a “routine arrangement in our annual training plan” in line with international law and not directed against any country or target.

But observers interpreted the launch as a political message and show of force, saying it could heighten concerns in the US and among China’s neighbours about Beijing’s modernisation of its nuclear weapons.

“They are signalling that China has the capability to hit US territory with nuclear weapons,” said Lin Ying-yu, a Taiwanese PLA expert. “This show of force could be intended to give them more bargaining power in the upcoming call between Xi and Biden.”

In July 2021, the PLA launched a rocket that used a “fractional orbital bombardment” system to propel a nuclear-capable “hypersonic glide vehicle” around the Earth for the first time. It held a second hypersonic test the next month.

Beijing did not specify which missile it tested on Wednesday.

“Most of the PLA’s ballistic missile firing training uses test ranges in Xinjiang or the Bohai Sea as target areas,” said Hsu Yen-chi, a researcher at the Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies think-tank in Taipei. “It is very rare for them to use a range other than these two as an ICBM firing range, the last time being in 1980.”

Lin said the test could indicate the increasing maturity of China’s Beidou satellite navigation system, which the PLA uses for missile guidance.

He added that it could also reflect an effort by the Rocket Force, the PLA arm in charge of conventional and nuclear missile operations, to show that its combat power had not been weakened by Xi’s purges of the force’s leadership and an ongoing anti-corruption crackdown.

China, which in the past kept only a small number of nuclear warheads to allow it to retaliate against an enemy’s nuclear strike, is now engaged in a rapid expansion of its warhead and missile launcher arsenal.

This build-up could transform China into a peer of the US and Russia, the world’s two leading nuclear powers, by the early 2030s, according to US defence experts.

Beijing’s increasing nuclear strength and its opaque intentions have triggered a debate in Washington on whether and how the US needs to expand and adjust its own nuclear capabilities and posture.

China and the US started nuclear talks last year after a meeting between Xi and Biden, but China suspended them in July.

Last month, Beijing called for the UN Security Council’s permanent members to match its own “no first use” policy, in a move that attacked Washington’s nuclear sharing arrangements with Nato allies and nuclear umbrella protections in Asia.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had observed “recent intensive missile launch drills and other training activities” by the Chinese military.

For the first time, all three Chinese aircraft carriers were at sea simultaneously on Wednesday.

The Liaoning, the PLA’s first carrier, is conducting a training mission in the western Pacific, while the second carrier, the Shandong, is in the South China Sea, and China’s newest carrier, the Fujian, is undergoing sea trials.

According to Japan’s military, another PLA Navy flotilla entered the Sea of Okhotsk on Monday as Chinese and Russian naval ships trained together in the vicinity of Japan.

By conducting the ICBM test at the same time as the other drills, “the PLA is flexing their muscles with all-domain capabilities”, said James Chen, a professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.

A MUM pulled her son out of school when he was just 14 so he could pursue his business dream – and now the business has made £3.6million.

Noah Carlile-Swift was just a teenager when his mum Tara suggested they start a business together to help build his confidence after his secondary school education left him feeling “stupid”.

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When Noah was just 11, he was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia, effectively meaning, as Tara, 50, says, he was “bright, at the top end of learning ability, but not in the way that school teaches it. So he struggled with exams and with comprehension, which is mainly what school is about.”

So, with the support of Noah’s school, they started Freckleface, a fragrance company selling wax melts – scented pieces of wax that release an aroma into the room when heated on top of a burner – and soon after Noah left his school in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

Tara told The Times: “They [Noah’s school] agreed that he was doing stuff outside of school with the business – building the website, taking computers apart, designing logos – and was much better using his skills on something he got reward from, rather than feeling stupid every day.”

Starting as a kitchen table business, Freckleface now has its own factory in rural Lincolnshire and operates five shops in York, Cambridge, Lincoln and Stamford – with plans to open more outlets next year.

Last year, the company had sales of £3.6million and a pre-tax profit of £600,000.

Tara is the managing director while Noah runs the retail side of things with the long-term plan being that he takes over her role in 10 years’ time.

For Tara, it was certainly an unconventional route into being an entrepreneur as her “only qualification” is a Btec in sign writing.

When she was just six months old her dad died suddenly of a heart attack aged 46 and her mum went on to remarry when Tara was six.

Due to her stepdad’s job in HM Coastguard it meant the family “moved every few years”, including spells in the Isle of Wight and the Gower Peninsula in Wales.

Almost as soon as Tara gained her Btec, it was made virtually redundant due to the march of technology and “the whole signwriting world went digital”.

After she “bummed around for a couple of years” Tara did a course to become a personal assistant.

She chose a college in Nottingham after she met Simon, her husband, on a night out in the city.

Tara said: “I went for the weekend, met Simon, and we moved in together two weeks later. We’ve been together ever since.”

After her PA course she landed a job at Experian, the credit-checking firm, where she spent three years learning about business “through osmosis” as she sat in on meetings with the top team.

Tara added: “At the time, you don’t realise, but you’re absorbing it all, sitting with finance directors taking minutes of all the meetings.”

She and Simon were also trying for a baby, but after suffering a series of miscarriages, decided to take some time out from the corporate life and head to Australia for a year.

As they landed back in England Tara found out she was pregnant with Noah.

Tara then got a temping job with Boots, the high street chemist, which has its headquarters in Nottingham.

CHANCE CONVERSATION

It was while at Boots a chance conversation lead to a dramatic change in her career.

Tara said: “I was sitting in the canteen eating my sandwich and the people next to me were talking about products they were developing for pregnant people and I chipped in and said, ‘I don’t think you should do it like that, I think you should think about this,’ and they offered me a job in the marketing department.”

After a couple of years at Boots, she left as part of a restructuring and retrained as a project manager, taking the Prince2 (Projects in Controlled Environments) project management qualification, before working as an administrator for Siemens on railway bids.

That job though meant long hours and frequent travel, with Tara often being away three night a week, which she and Simon juggled alongside his shifts as an IT worker.

To help Noah make his transition to secondary school, Tara quit her job as Siemens and needing an extra income, became a foster carer.

The couple fostered 23 children in three and a half years.

She decided to start her own business just as the fostering was coming to an end but describes the first few months as “absolute carnage”.

Tara said: “We had a baby who we had from birth and he had gastric problems so he didn’t sleep and was sick constantly, plus I had a teenager who was neurodiverse, all while I was doing the business.

“We were making the products all week and then I was putting them in the car, driving all over the country, sleeping in the car, doing whatever we needed to get the products out there.”

But while it was exhausting, they knew they were on to something.

‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’

She added: “It became obvious really quickly that we had something special.

“We would go to a fair, sell out, come home, make it all again. Go to another show, and sell out. And so on.”

The baby boy was then adopted permanently by “the most super family in the world” and the Carlile-Swifts still see him every six weeks but Tara said the initial separation was “awful” and she threw herself into the business.

Tara said: “We decided, ‘Let’s take the business really seriously’.

“We came up with a business plan that said we wanted to have stores on every UK high street and for the brand to be global within ten years.”

Freckleface moved into its first industrial unit in 2019, just a few months before Covid hit.

The pandemic could have derailed production but sales were boosted by people working from home and “everybody wanting their houses to smell great”.

FIRST SHOP

The firm was also helped by reduced rents and breaks on business rates during the pandemic which helped them open their first Freckleface store in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in July 2020.

Another shop in Cambridge opened the following year.

In order to save money Tara and Simone built the shop interiors for the first three stores, with Noah taking on the responsibility for the last two.

Along with its stores, Freckleface products are also stocked in more than 800 shops nationwide and the brand has run collaborations with the Royal Horticultural Society and Laura Ashley.

Freckleface now has a workforce of 60, including Tara’s husband, who joined in 2020 to run the manufacturing side.

Tara puts a lot of the company’s more recent success down to the initial slog at trade shows and local fairs.

She said: “The customer you meet at a show is a super-loyal customer. They will shop from you online and will seek out your high street stores.

“And our product is a consumable one, so they tend to come back every month or six weeks to stock up.

“So the hard work of schlepping around the country at shows is why the business built so quickly.”

The family has not raised or borrowed any money to finance the business.

At first, they struggled even to buy a kilo of wax, which would have cost “£10 or so”.

Even though working capital is “still the biggest stresser that keeps us awake at night and stops us from growing quicker”, Tara added she’s “not interested” in raising investment.

She said: “We want to be a heritage brand that’s still going to be on the high street in 50 years and we will hand down the generations of Frecklefaces.

“We’re not in it to make a quick buck.”

The company name is Tara’s nickname for Noah was he was tiny, because she had been taunted by playground bullies for being a “freckleface” and wanted to ensure Noah thought the name was a term of endearment.

She said: “We’re very freckly, we’re plastered. And we would call each other freckleface.

“So it was a natural decision when we were naming the business, but we never thought back then we were going to have all these shops.

“And now people shout Freckleface at us across the street, but in a nice way.”

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