Aldi announces pay rises for staff
Aldi has announced new pay rates, saying it will be the first supermarket to guarantee all store and warehouse workers earn at least £12 an hour.
The minimum rate will increase by 40p an hour, and by 70p to £13.55 within the M25, with the increases taking effect from February.
Aldi said it is investing £67m in pay, adding it is also the only supermarket to offer paid breaks, which for the average store worker is worth more than £900 a year.
Giles Hurley, chief executive of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “Just as we promise to provide the best value to our customers, we are also committed to being the highest-paying supermarket in the sector.”
Aldi is the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket and has more than 1,000 stores, 11 regional distribution centres and 40,000 employees across Britain.
Aldi staff will all earn at least £12 an hour - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Games Workshop hands staff £2,500 bonus as half-year profits rise 12%
Sarah Butler
Thu, 7 December 2023
Photograph: May James/Reuters
The fantasy figurine retailer Games Workshop is handing its shop workers, model makers, designers and support staff a £2,500 Christmas bonus, £1,000 more than a year ago, after half-year profits rose more than 12%.
The Nottingham-based company behind the popular table-top gaming series Warhammer and Lord of the Rings figures said its workers would split a £7.5m bonus pool, up from £4.5m a year ago.
Games Workshop, which runs about 530 stores, said it was increasing the bonus as it expected half-year profits to be at least £94m as sales rose 9% to £247m. There was strong growth in its core gaming sales but a drop in licensing income.
Started nearly 50 years ago by three schoolfriends, Games Workshop enjoyed a boom during the pandemic and has continued to thrive despite tough times on the high street as hobbies and small treats that can be enjoyed at home have benefited from the cost of living squeeze.
Analysts said the company had recorded a slowdown in the second quarter of its financial year but had enjoyed the benefits of a strong first quarter helped by the launch of the 10th edition of its Warhammer 40,000 game, which features characters such as Space Marines and the squid-like Neurotyrant.
Shares in the group fell almost 11% to just under £95 as Andrew Wade, an analyst at Jefferies, said investors were likely to be disappointed that the business had only delivered sales and profits in line with expectations.
In the summer, analysts upgraded forecasts after strong early sales of the latest 40,000 edition while the cost of shipping goods and some materials fell. Wade said it appeared there had been “a pull-forward of demand” in the summer and Games Workshop now faced tougher trading conditions.
Warhammer maker Games Workshop pays staff £2,500 bonus — but £450m knocked off market cap as shares tumble
Daniel O'Boyle
Thu, 7 December 2023
Warhammer maker Games Workshop has agreed a right deal with Amazon studios
Sarah Butler
Thu, 7 December 2023
Photograph: May James/Reuters
The fantasy figurine retailer Games Workshop is handing its shop workers, model makers, designers and support staff a £2,500 Christmas bonus, £1,000 more than a year ago, after half-year profits rose more than 12%.
The Nottingham-based company behind the popular table-top gaming series Warhammer and Lord of the Rings figures said its workers would split a £7.5m bonus pool, up from £4.5m a year ago.
Games Workshop, which runs about 530 stores, said it was increasing the bonus as it expected half-year profits to be at least £94m as sales rose 9% to £247m. There was strong growth in its core gaming sales but a drop in licensing income.
Started nearly 50 years ago by three schoolfriends, Games Workshop enjoyed a boom during the pandemic and has continued to thrive despite tough times on the high street as hobbies and small treats that can be enjoyed at home have benefited from the cost of living squeeze.
Analysts said the company had recorded a slowdown in the second quarter of its financial year but had enjoyed the benefits of a strong first quarter helped by the launch of the 10th edition of its Warhammer 40,000 game, which features characters such as Space Marines and the squid-like Neurotyrant.
Shares in the group fell almost 11% to just under £95 as Andrew Wade, an analyst at Jefferies, said investors were likely to be disappointed that the business had only delivered sales and profits in line with expectations.
In the summer, analysts upgraded forecasts after strong early sales of the latest 40,000 edition while the cost of shipping goods and some materials fell. Wade said it appeared there had been “a pull-forward of demand” in the summer and Games Workshop now faced tougher trading conditions.
Warhammer maker Games Workshop pays staff £2,500 bonus — but £450m knocked off market cap as shares tumble
Daniel O'Boyle
Thu, 7 December 2023
Warhammer maker Games Workshop has agreed a right deal with Amazon studios
(Games Workshop/PA)
Warhammer maker Games Workshop is to pay all its staff a £2,500 Christmas bonus as half-year profits rose to nearly £100 million.
The payout, a combined £7.5 million, is up from £1,500 per employee last year. It comes as profit grew by 12.4% to £94 million, on sales of £235 million, also up on last year.
But investors, who have become used to upgrades, were not impressed. Jefferies analysts Andrew Wade and Grace Gilberg flagged “markedly slower” growth in the second quarter.
Peel Hunt analysts were less negative, saying that the numbers were “consistent with our full-year forecasts”.
The shares tumbled by as much as 13% to 9224p, knocking £450 million off the multi-billion-pound company's market cap. That’s 21% off their July peak, but still up more than 200% over the last five years and 20 times the price they were trading at in 2016.
The bonus is enough for a fan of Games Workshop’s flagship — and famously expensive — Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game to build the two-foot tall Mars Pattern Warlord Titan and equip it with a pair of power claws and a set of laser blasters.
Sold in parts, the figurine costs £1,674.50 to assemble and paint. It’s the most pricey model listed on the Warhammer website, which describes the Titan as “among the most ancient and feared of the Imperium's war machines”.
“Forged on the Red Planet itself, it is worshipped and venerated as the Omnissiah's will incarnate and each god-engine is encased in layered armour and powerful void shielding, and armed with weapons that are capable of reducing entire armies to ash,” the Warhammer website reads.
Warhammer maker Games Workshop is to pay all its staff a £2,500 Christmas bonus as half-year profits rose to nearly £100 million.
The payout, a combined £7.5 million, is up from £1,500 per employee last year. It comes as profit grew by 12.4% to £94 million, on sales of £235 million, also up on last year.
But investors, who have become used to upgrades, were not impressed. Jefferies analysts Andrew Wade and Grace Gilberg flagged “markedly slower” growth in the second quarter.
Peel Hunt analysts were less negative, saying that the numbers were “consistent with our full-year forecasts”.
The shares tumbled by as much as 13% to 9224p, knocking £450 million off the multi-billion-pound company's market cap. That’s 21% off their July peak, but still up more than 200% over the last five years and 20 times the price they were trading at in 2016.
The bonus is enough for a fan of Games Workshop’s flagship — and famously expensive — Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game to build the two-foot tall Mars Pattern Warlord Titan and equip it with a pair of power claws and a set of laser blasters.
Sold in parts, the figurine costs £1,674.50 to assemble and paint. It’s the most pricey model listed on the Warhammer website, which describes the Titan as “among the most ancient and feared of the Imperium's war machines”.
“Forged on the Red Planet itself, it is worshipped and venerated as the Omnissiah's will incarnate and each god-engine is encased in layered armour and powerful void shielding, and armed with weapons that are capable of reducing entire armies to ash,” the Warhammer website reads.
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