The chairman of Britain's biggest retailer, Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) has said he was joking after telling an audience of aspiring non-executive directors that white men were "an endangered species" in UK boardrooms, Reuters reported.
John Allan, who became Tesco chairman in 2015, told the Retail Week Live conference last week that women and people from an ethnic background were in an "extremely propitious period" when it came to getting top jobs in business.
Newspapers quoted Allan as saying: "For a thousand years, men have got most of these jobs, the pendulum has swung very significantly the other way now and will do for the foreseeable future, I think. If you are a white male, tough. You are an endangered species and you are going to have to work twice as hard."
Tech move …
Part-state-owned lender Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY) plans to move about 1,900 staff to US tech giant International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) in a restructuring plan aimed at reducing costs.
According to Reuters, Lloyds’ Trade Union said in a newsletter to staff on Sunday that the transferred employees would be kept on for a year, but most would lose their jobs after four years.
The union said the move could weaken the bank's "existing security controls" and impact on the confidentiality of customer data.
Dialling up …
Mobile phones giant Vodafone PLC (LON:VOD) will create 2,100 new customer service jobs across the UK in the next two years as part of an investment drive to improve operations in its home market.
The world's second biggest mobile operator has been struggling in the market with a move to a new billing system disrupting subscriber additions.
It has also slipped behind rivals, such as O2 and EE, who can offer bundles of pay-TV, mobile and fixed-line services, while Vodafone has delayed rolling out a TV service until it has improved its core mobile service.
Energy drain …
German-owned Npower, one of Britain's ‘Big Six’ energy providers, lost 77,000 UK retail customers last year, according to the annual report published by owner Innogy AG today.
Pointing to a "challenging" environment, Innogy said the number of Npower’s gas and electricity clients in Britain stood at 4.921 mln in at the end of 2016.
The German company said: "Some customers can only be retained by making the conditions of their contracts more favourable to them.”
Rent arrears …
The average monthly rent for newly let properties has fallen for the first time since late 2010, according to a survey by Countrywide PLC (LON:CWD), mainly due to a big drop in London and south east of England.
The estate agency’s latest report showed average new tenancy costs in England, Wales and Scotland fell by 0.6% in the year to February to £921 a month.
In the UK capital they fell by nearly 5% over the past year to an average of £1,246 a month, and in the south east of England they fell by nearly 3% to £1,152.