Around 200 jobs are at risk at John Lewis as the retailer prepares to close its in-store foreign exchange desks and dedicated gift wrapping areas, a signal of how quickly digital payments are hollowing out once-dependable high street services.

The employee-owned retailer is consulting on the plans, and no final decision has been made. If approved, the redundancies would take effect in the autumn.

The bureau de change closures will affect 30 shops, while dedicated gift wrapping areas will go in 25. Gift wrapping will not vanish entirely: the service will move to the tills, a change John Lewis says will make it more accessible.

The retailer said demand for in-store currency exchange had fallen as customers increasingly order foreign currency online and collect it in store, while others skip cash altogether and rely on credit cards or digital payments when abroad.

“As we focus on modernising this proposition to meet our customers’ changing needs, we’re proposing to close our in-store foreign exchange bureaus as well as our gift wrapping service,” a spokesperson said.

“As a result, we’re regretfully consulting with partners who currently deliver these services.”

The retailer added that it would support affected staff “throughout the consultation process and support redeployment where possible”.

For business owners, the decision holds a familiar lesson: when customers quietly stop using a service, sentiment is a poor reason to keep staffing it. If a retailer with John Lewis’s attachment to tradition is prepared to retire its gift wrapping counters, smaller firms clinging to loss-making offerings for loyalty’s sake may want to look again at their own numbers.

The episode is also a reminder of the process involved. Any employer proposing 20 or more redundancies at a single establishment within 90 days must follow collective consultation rules, with consultation starting at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect. Get it wrong and the penalties are steep, so SMEs contemplating restructuring should not treat consultation as a formality.

The proposals are the latest in a series of changes under chairman Jason Tarry, who took over in 2024 after a tough few years marked by job cuts and store closures, and a wider cull that has seen high street job losses climb steeply across the sector.

The partnership closed its housebuilding arm in February, a move that also led to some job losses. Yet in March it reinstated its staff bonus for the first time in four years as profits and sales improved. The bonus had been scrapped during the Covid pandemic, the first suspension since 1953.

John Lewis’s latest full-year results showed a pre-tax loss of £21m, driven by £120m of one-off costs relating mainly to write-downs on ageing tech systems. Underlying profits rose 6 per cent to £134m, while sales across the business climbed 5 per cent to £13.4bn.

Waitrose continues to outpace the department stores. Supermarket sales grew 7 per cent to £8.5bn in the year to the end of January, against a 3 per cent rise to £4.9bn at John Lewis.

The direction of travel is clear enough: fewer services that customers have drifted away from, and more investment in the in-store experiences, such as its expanding café and restaurant offering, that still pull people through the doors.

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

Zuber Issa has agreed to buy 85 petrol stations from the collapsed Prax Group, taking his three-year-old EG On The Move business to 285 forecourts and confirming that Britain’s most prolific forecourt entrepreneur is building a second fuel empire at speed.

The billionaire, who founded EG On The Move as a separate business in 2023, has already acquired EG Group’s UK operation and 98 forecourts from Applegreen. The Prax deal is the latest in that run of rapid acquisitions, and it will not surprise anyone who has watched his career that he is buying while others are selling.

For the small business owners who actually run the sites, the change of ownership is the detail that matters most. The 85 forecourts will continue to be operated by independent commission managers, with EG On The Move pledging further investment in food-to-go, electric vehicle charging, convenience retail and customer facilities.

Zuber Issa said: “We look forward to working alongside each operator to build on the strengths of their businesses, helping make every site more effective, more competitive and even more attractive to customers.”

The sites come out of one of the most spectacular corporate collapses the UK fuel sector has seen. Prax Group, founded by Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai and his wife Arani Soosaipillai, unravelled last year under mounting financial pressure, pushing several key companies into administration and triggering one of the biggest failures in the UK fuel supply chain in recent years.

The company owned the Lindsey oil refinery, at one point supplied about a tenth of Britain’s fuel, and operated forecourts under the TotalEnergies and Harvest Energy brands. Administrators have since alleged widespread financial irregularities, which Mr Soosaipillai disputes, and the conduct of the former directors remains the subject of an ongoing Insolvency Service investigation.

For entrepreneurs, the contrast between buyer and seller is instructive. Zuber Issa, 54, and his brother Mohsin bought a single garage in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 2001 and built EG Group into one of Europe’s largest petrol station operators. The brothers bought Asda in 2020 but have since split their business interests, with Zuber selling his stake in the supermarket in 2024 and turning his attention to roadside retail, alongside side ventures such as the revival of the Duckhams motor oil brand.

His renewed bet on forecourts comes even as electric and plug-in hybrid cars outsell petrol-only models in the UK for the first time. The answer, on this evidence, is to make the forecourt about far more than fuel. EG On The Move says it will work with commission operators to improve site performance while investing in grocery ranges, foodservice brands, car washes and rapid EV charging across the newly acquired network.

The timing is hardly accidental. The former EG Group forecourt business, now operating under the Cumberland Farms name, has confidentially filed for a New York stock market listing that could value it at about $9bn (£6.75bn), a move long trailed by the brothers. The listing is expected to crystallise shareholdings worth around $2.3bn each for the Issa brothers, cementing their status among Britain’s wealthiest entrepreneurs.

The transaction was advised by Cleary Gottlieb, PwC and the company’s banking partners.

For the UK’s independent forecourt operators, the lesson is a familiar one: when a major supplier fails, consolidators move quickly, and the businesses that thrive are those that have diversified beyond the pump.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.

British businesses are staring at another energy cost shock after wholesale gas prices jumped around 5 per cent, triggered by Donald Trump declaring the ceasefire with Iran “over” following a fresh wave of US strikes and renewed attacks on tankers in the strait of Hormuz.

The benchmark Dutch front-month gas contract at the TTF hub rose €2.424 to €49 per megawatt hour, touching €49.76 at one stage, its highest level since 11 June. The British front-month contract climbed 6 pence to 116.75p per therm.

The trigger was Trump’s declaration that the memorandum of understanding intended to end the conflict with Iran was “over”, after both sides resumed hostilities. The US launched a new round of strikes and Tehran hit American bases in the Gulf, while several tankers were attacked in the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

For UK firms, the timing is grim. Wholesale energy costs had been easing since mid-June, and oil had only recently slid back to pre-war levels as shipping cautiously returned to the waterway. That recovery now looks to have been unwound in a matter of hours.

Why the strait matters to your energy bill

About a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas supplies

typically pass through the strait of Hormuz. Britain does not buy much LNG directly from the Gulf, but gas is priced on a global market, so any squeeze on Qatari cargoes pushes up the wholesale prices that feed through to the fixed and variable contracts UK businesses sign.

Tuesday’s attacks underlined how fragile the reopening was. A Qatari LNG tanker was at risk of exploding and a Saudi crude tanker was damaged near the strait, prompting maritime authorities to raise the threat level for vessels transiting the waterway to severe. The Qatari tanker is awaiting salvage once a fire on board has been extinguished.

Analysts at Engie EnergyScan said: “The attacks, including a Qatari LNG carrier, reignited supply risk concerns, prompting a swift risk premium rebuild as shipping traffic through the strait remains well below normal.”

An October deadline

The International Energy Agency warned on Tuesday that if the strait is not fully reopened before October, global LNG supply could record its first annual decline since 2012. That would land just as the northern hemisphere heads into winter, when demand, and prices, are at their most unforgiving.

That is an uncomfortable prospect for a country already carrying the highest electricity costs in the G7, where gas typically sets the price of power. Every sustained move higher in the wholesale gas market flows through to the electricity bills of manufacturers, hospitality operators and high street firms alike.

What business owners should take from this

The lesson of the past week is that the energy market will reprice violently on a single statement from the White House, in either direction. Firms that assumed the worst was over when US strikes first rattled the ceasefire in May have been caught out twice.

For owners weighing up energy contracts, that argues for caution. Those on variable or out-of-contract rates are the most exposed to further spikes, while anyone banking on a calm autumn to fix at lower prices may find the window has already closed. Stress-testing cash flow against another winter of elevated gas prices is no longer a pessimist’s exercise. It is simply prudent planning.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.

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Housing affordability is expected to improve with the pace of home price growth slowing to a rate that’s lower than inflation, a new report finds.

Realtor.com on Wednesday released a midyear update to its 2026 housing market forecast that estimates home price growth will slow to 1.2% this year, a rate that’s slower than the original forecast for the year and is slower than the pace of inflation. That means home prices would be effectively declining in real, inflation-adjusted terms.

“Against a backdrop of both familiar and new challenges, the economy has proved resilient. As a result, the first half of 2026 delivered stability more than momentum in the housing market,” said Realtor.com senior economist Danielle Hale.

“The housing market is inching forward as sellers reset expectations, price growth cools, and buyers gain more negotiating power,” Hale said. “Looking ahead, we expect momentum to build through the second half of the year as more sidelined buyers and sellers find terms that will work for both sides.”

WHY AMERICAN ARE FLOCKING TO THIS FLORIDA RETIREMENT HOT SPOT

A real estate agent and a prospective buyer stand outside a home during an open house in Seattle, Washington. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Mortgage rates are projected to hold steady at 6.3%, the same level they were at when 2025 ended, as a resurgence of inflation caused by the Iran war undercut the prospects of interest cuts in the first of the year that could’ve helped mortgage rates decline.

The slower pace of home price growth is expected to help lower monthly mortgage payments on a year-over-year basis, which the updated forecast suggests will decline 1.9% this year – more than the initial projection of a 1.3% dip.

GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS ADD NEARLY $132K TO COST OF NEW HOME, BUILDERS SAY

Existing home sales are expected to tick higher from a year ago. (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

By contrast, the average monthly mortgage payment rose 1.9% in 2025 and was up 7% on average from 2013 to 2019.

Existing home sales are expected to see modest improvement from a year ago, rising from 4.06 million in 2025 to an estimated 4.1 million this year – though the growth is projected to be lower than the original forecast of 4.13 million homes sold in 2026.

“Buyers and sellers have shown a lot of staying power this year,” Hale said. “This is a market where people are adjusting and showing up rather than giving up. Sellers are meeting the market with more realistic asking prices, which is helping deals get done.”

RECORD DECLINE IN HOME ASKING PRICES OFFERS BUYERS AN AFFORDABILITY BOOST

New home construction has pulled back in some parts of the country, though the Northeast and Midwest continue to face shortages. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Inventory of existing homes for sale is also expected to grow at a slower rate than previously anticipated, rising 3.6% year over year rather than the 8.9% gain projected under Realtor.com‘s initial forecast for this year.

New home sales have softened as mortgage rate buydowns and price cuts that helped encourage buyers to approach builders have lost their pull amid the stabilization of prices.

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Builders have pulled back on permits and new home starts the most sharply in the South and West, which had driven much of the national construction and have recovered more fully from supply shortages.

Across the country, the homebuilding deficit remains at an estimated 4 million homes, with the biggest opportunity in the Northeast and Midwest, which face the most significant shortages.

‘This acquisition gives us the scale and wider expertise to do more for customers’

Tyneside IT service provider Technology Services Group (TSG) has snapped up a Berkshire business in a multimillion-pound deal.

Team Valley-based TSG, a Microsoft Solution Partner focused on SMEs, has acquired Creative Computing Solutions, an established Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partner which offers a particular specialism in the production and media sectors.

Based in Maidenhead, Creative Computing Solutions has around 100 customers and has clients including Hat Trick Productions, whose credits include programmes such as Middlesbrough-based Smoggie Queens, Mastermind, Derry Girls and Have I Got News For You.

The move will see Creative Computing Solutions’ existing customers and employees benefit from TSG’s broader managed IT services capability, expertise, and resources as a leading Microsoft partner.

Creative Computing Solutions’ CEO Justin Farmiloe steps into the TSG management team as CTO as part of the transaction, while the firm’s existing contracts, support arrangements, and the intellectual property of all bespoke customer solutions will remain unchanged.

Customers will continue to benefit from the expertise of the management team and employees they know to ensure a seamless transition and continuity across day-to-day operations. At the same time, customers will gain access to TSG’s wider expertise and services across cloud, infrastructure, business applications, managed IT services, cyber security, data and AI.

The multimillion-pound deal forms part of TSG’s continued growth plans, following its successful management buyout on the back of significant investment from Pictet Alternative Advisors. It marks the third acquisition that TSG has completed following the MBO in July 2024.

The MBO saw CEO Rory McKeand and his leadership team join forces with Pictet in the deal, which marked an exit for founders Sir Graham Wylie and executive chairman David Stonehouse.

TSG now employs around 300 people, delivering customer support to businesses using Microsoft Dynamics, Sage and Pegasus business applications, and broader Microsoft technologies in industries including professional services, healthcare, food and beverage, education and manufacturing. Customers include the likes of Perspective Financial, Day Lewis Pharmacies and McQueen’s Dairies.

Like this story? For more news from the tech sector, visit our dedicated page for the latest news and analysis here.

The acquisition of Creative Computing Solutions is set to double TSG’s Business Central practice, increase the company’s headcount by around 8%, and boost its technical expertise, specialist sector knowledge and Microsoft solutions capability.

Rory McKeand, CEO of TSG, said: “For us, Creative Computing Solutions was a natural fit, offering an established Business Central customer base, the technical expertise our partners expect, and complementary capabilities that will further enhance our offering.

“The most important thing for us is that Creative Computing Solutions’ customers keep what already works. They will continue to have access to the people, support contacts and specialist Business Central expertise they know, while gaining the additional depth TSG can provide across managed IT, cloud, cyber security, business applications, data and AI. They will also benefit from TSG Academy – the most-used Microsoft training platform in the UK, which is absolutely free to our customers.”

Justin Farmiloe, chief technology officer at TSG (formerly CEO of Creative Computing Solutions), said: “Creative Computing Solutions has built its reputation on long-term customer relationships, practical support and deep Business Central expertise. In choosing TSG, it was important to find a partner that understood our customers, our people and the specialist capability we have developed.

“This acquisition gives us the scale and wider expertise to do more for customers, while protecting the relationships and support they trust.”

LONDON — Britain’s benchmark FTSE 100 index fell sharply Wednesday, dropping 95.15 points, or 0.89 percent, to 10,570.73, as escalating tensions in the Middle East pushed oil prices higher and weighed on broader risk sentiment across London’s stock market.

The decline marked a notable reversal from the prior day’s trading, when the FTSE 100 closed 0.13 percent higher at 10,665.88, itself only a modest gain following a strong run earlier in the week. Wednesday’s session opened at 10,651.30 before extending losses through the morning, with the index trading in a range between 10,568.57 and 10,666.09, according to intraday data.

Ahead of Wednesday’s open, futures had pointed to a far more modest decline for the index. According to IG, futures had indicated the FTSE 100 would open just 12.5 points, or 0.1 percent, lower at 10,653.38, a projection that proved considerably more optimistic than how the session ultimately unfolded once trading got underway.

The sharper-than-expected decline came as renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran near the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil prices higher overnight, weighing on broader investor sentiment across European equity markets. The United States carried out fresh airstrikes inside Iran in response to attacks on commercial shipping in the strait, prompting Iran to retaliate with missile and drone strikes against U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. The renewed exchange of strikes has raised fresh concerns about potential disruption to one of the world’s most critical energy shipping corridors, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passes during peacetime.

Wednesday’s losses followed what had otherwise been a relatively strong stretch for the FTSE 100 in recent sessions. The index closed at 10,652.87 the previous Thursday, a 1.67 percent advance that marked its highest level since April 17, driven by a powerful rally across defensive, pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors. Defense contractor BAE Systems led that earlier rally with a gain of more than 6 percent, followed by Babcock International, up around 5.5 percent, and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which climbed nearly 5 percent. That defensive positioning has continued to shape trading through the following week, reflecting the FTSE 100’s relatively limited direct exposure to the technology sector, a characteristic that has increasingly insulated London-listed equities from the sharper swings affecting artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks in markets like the United States.

Beyond the geopolitical backdrop, fresh economic data released Wednesday offered a mixed picture of conditions in the UK labor market. According to the latest KPMG and Recruitment & Employment Confederation report compiled by S&P Global, the decline in permanent job postings eased markedly in June, while demand for temporary workers strengthened to its fastest pace in more than three years. The permanent placements index rose to 49.1 points in June from 44.1 in May, while the permanent salaries index increased to 53.1 from 52.2, marking the fastest pace of pay growth since January. The temporary wages index also climbed, rising to 52.9 from 51.4.

Currency markets reflected some of the same cautious tone weighing on equities. Sterling was quoted at $1.3355 early Wednesday, down from $1.3376 at Tuesday’s London equities close. Against the euro, the pound also weakened, falling to €1.1693 from €1.1704 the previous day.

Broader Asian markets showed a mixed picture overnight ahead of Wednesday’s European session. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.8 percent despite data from the Ministry of Finance showing the country’s current account surplus widened 20 percent year-on-year in May, to 3.968 trillion yen, or roughly $24.43 billion, from 3.321 trillion yen a year earlier, a figure that came in below the FXStreet-cited consensus forecast of 4.121 trillion yen but exceeded April’s surplus of 3.908 trillion yen. Japanese exports rose 15 percent year-on-year, while imports increased 8.1 percent. In China, the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.1 percent, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong bucked the broader regional trend, climbing 2.7 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5 percent.

Gold prices eased slightly Wednesday, quoted at $4,126.60 an ounce, down from $4,144.14 the previous day, even as China’s central bank continued an extended streak of gold purchases. According to Bloomberg, the People’s Bank of China bought more gold in June, extending its longest buying streak since at least 2015, with bullion holdings rising by 480,000 troy ounces to 75.44 million ounces during the month.

Corporate dealmaking activity had provided support for London market sentiment earlier in the week, with oil and gas explorer Capricorn Energy rallying sharply after agreeing to a £271 million cash takeover by Genel Energy at 357 pence per share. Financial trading platform CMC Markets also advanced following an increase to its earnings guidance and a subsequent analyst upgrade, while retailer Currys posted full-year earnings broadly in line with analyst estimates and announced the launch of a £50 million share buyback program, adding to what had been a largely constructive run of corporate news flow heading into the current week.

Despite Wednesday’s pullback, the FTSE 100 remains within a broadly positive longer-term trend. The index’s 52-week range spans from 8,803.27 to 10,934.94, with London’s benchmark having gained more than 19 percent over the trailing 12-month period as of recent readings, one of the stronger annual performances among major global developed-market indices. That resilience has been attributed in part to the FTSE 100’s relatively defensive composition, weighted toward sectors such as energy, financials, pharmaceuticals and consumer staples, which have historically provided some insulation during periods of volatility tied to more growth-oriented, technology-concentrated markets elsewhere.

With Middle East tensions continuing to develop and no clear resolution in sight following Wednesday’s exchange of strikes, investors are likely to remain focused on further developments in the region, along with any additional economic data releases, as they assess whether the current pullback represents a temporary pause in the FTSE 100’s broader upward trajectory or the beginning of a more sustained period of volatility tied to rising energy prices and geopolitical risk.