Going strong DURALEX, the French company producing the table and glassware accompanying many a modest Spanish Menu del Dia, will become a cooperative.
After 20 years of financial setbacks and a suspension of payments announced in April, the iconic firm’s 226 employees have rescued the firm taken over in 2021 by International Cookware, which also owns Pyrex.
To avoid bankruptcy, an Orleans court authorised Duralex workers to take over the brand as a cooperative company, which gives them 51 per cent of the capital and the deciding vote on key issues.
Turning Duralex into a cooperative was a “more solid solution” for the company’s future than two offers received from other companies, the Orleans tribunal concluded.
More spending money SPANISH households’ disposable income grew by 1.5 per cent during 2024’s first quarter, according to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) figures.
This was also comfortably above the average 0.9 per cent increase for OECD member countries.
Although Spain’s disposable income has now climbed for two consecutive quarters, this latest rise was less pronounced than 2023’s last quarter which was up 3.74 per cent on the previous three months.
Back to normal THE UK’S grocery inflation rate rose 1.8 per cent in the four weeks ending on August 4, Kantar World Panel revealed.
This was the first food inflation increase in 17 consecutive months, with vitamins, diet supplements, drinks and chocolate amongst the most affected items.
Despite the rise, Kantar’s Retail and Consumer Insight chief, Fraser McKevitt, said that grocery inflation had now returned to a “historically-normal level.”
While this was especially noticeable after 17 months of falling rates, the latest figure signalled a return to average levels over the five years that preceded the onset of the cost-of-living crisis, McKevitt added.
No closures HSBC pledged that it would not close any outlets until 2026 at the earliest.
Since 2015, Britain’s high street banks have between them closed more than 6,000 branches, of which 743 belonged to HSBC.
According to UK media reports, the bank now wants to reassure customers, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, that its promise to keep all of its 327 branches open this year will extend to 2025 “and probably beyond.”
The bank also intends to spend £50 million (€58.5 million) on renovating its offices.
Towers of strength UBS repeated its Cellnex Telecom “buy” recommendation and maintained its €41.1 target share price, suggesting a 23 per cent increase in value for the Spanish telecommunication towers group.
Not only UBS, but also analysts at Sabadell and Bankinter have approved the recent sale of Cellnex’s Austrian business which they described as “positive.”
Cellnex chief executive Marco Patuano maintained that the €803 million sale to an investor consortium was a step further towards a “new chapter” for the company.
“This is in line with a strategy that centres on consolidation, on simplifying our structure and focusing our efforts on opportunities for growth in the principal markets where we operate,” Patuano said.
Power from Scotland BRITAIN’S energy regulator Ofgem gave the go-ahead to a £4.3 billion (€5.03 billion) electricity “superhighway.”
A 300-mile (483-kilometre) undersea cable – the country’s longest – will transport electricity from offshore windfarms in north-east Scotland to Yorkshire in the north of England.
Once installed, this first phase of the Eastern Green Link will transport enough electricity to power two million homes and businesses for an hour, Ofgem said. Work is due to begin later this year, and should be completed by 2029.
Grifols targeted again GRIFOLS shares fell by 5 per cent to €8.22 on August 13, after Los Angeles law firm Schall launched a class action lawsuit against the Barcelona pharmaceuticals company.
The company’s shares are listed both in Spain and the US, and Schall Law maintained that Grifols issued “false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors.”
Shareholders in the company, targeted by short-sellers Gotham City Research in January 2024, have been invited to contact Schall Law to discuss their rights, free of charge.