Firms announce big profits but prices are still increased and jobs are still at risk
July 31, 2008
Today British Gas has seen quite a lot of negative press and consumer anger after announcing huge price hikes yesterday, followed by Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, announcing massive profits today. I’ve also just read in the paper that Cadbury has announced pre-tax profits in the first half of the year of £223million. This has been achieved by increases in profits in chewing gum, throat sweets and dairy milk chocolate. However this doesn’t mean that employees of the confectionary giant are safe from job losses, as the company announced that it will be reviewing staffing numbers as part of a cost cutting exercise, because of an expected 6% rise in the cost of commodities, i.e. ingredients etc.
It just shows that even in organisations that appear to be doing well, times are still challenging and companies are still likely to look at redundancies as a way of keeping costs down when facing difficult conditions in the future. Cadbury has growth targets to achieve despite the economic conditions, so even though the profits announced look strong, the company still has to look strategically across the business to ensure the expected financial performance is reached at the end of the year.
Things to consider:Gas Fireplaces at great prices.
www.directfires-online.co.uk
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