UK Only Article: 
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My big fat Greek divorce

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Retailers and supplier rebates

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Supplier rebates are at the heart of some supermarket chains’ woes

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Every little rebate helps

Every little rebate helps

MEETING angry shareholders is an experience few company bosses savour. Yet on June 26th Dave Lewis, the new chief executive of Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, will have to do exactly that. The firm will hold its first annual meeting since revealing that it had inflated its profits by £263m (1m) through wrongly booking rebates from suppliers—prompting his predecessor’s departure. Since then little has gone right for Tesco: sales have continued to slide, and the falling value of its property has forced it to declare a pre-tax loss of £6.4 billion for the year to February. Worse still, a Serious Fraud Office inquiry has been opened into the accounting scandal, which could cost the firm more than the error itself.
Some have asked …<div class="og_rss_groups"></div>
Source: Retailing
Retailers and supplier rebates: Buying up the shelves

UK Only Article:&nbsp;
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Entangled

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Coal

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Coal’s woes are spreading. But it still has its fans

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20150606_WBP001_0.jpg

CHEAP but dirty now, clean and still affordable sometime in the future. That used to be the coal industry’s pitch. But changing public moods about pollution, and stubbornly costly new technology, are denting the coalmen’s mood.
The biggest surprise is the slowdown in consumption in China, which burns half the world’s coal. Last year’s fall in demand no longer looks like a blip. In the first four months of 2015 it fell 8% year-on-year (and imports dropped by a stonking 38%). Environmental worries are spurring China to increase energy efficiency and boost its use of natural gas and renewables, particularly wind power. The economic slowdown has especially hit demand for the higher-quality (and more profitable) coal used in steelmaking.

Another big blow to the coal industry comes from cheap natural gas in North America. This is by far …<div class="og_rss_groups"></div>
Source: Utilities
Coal: Black moods

UK Only Article:&nbsp;
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Entangled

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European business and climate change

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Firms increasingly believe that saving the planet is good for business

Location:&nbsp;

PARIS

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Plugged in to climate concerns

Plugged in to climate concerns

SIX big European oil and gas firms called on June 1st for a globally co-ordinated price on carbon-dioxide emissions, to restrain the impact on the climate of burning fossil fuels. It was a bombshell, in its way. Five years ago no one would have expected the move: as producers of much of the world’s dirty fuels, their industry was disinclined to join forces and advocate accelerating the switch to cleaner ones. “It is a sort of revolution,” says Patrick Pouyanné, the boss of one of the six, Total. And it is not just the energy firms. As world leaders prepare to meet in Paris in December to produce an agreement on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, attitudes towards …<div class="og_rss_groups"></div>
Source: Utilities
European business and climate change: Walking the walk