Greggs To Shut Bakeries And Axe 355 Jobs

Greggs is shifting focus to take advantage of the "food to go" market

Greggs is cutting up to 355 jobs as it shuts three of its bakery sites under a £100m restructuring plan.

The Newcastle-based chain, which has around 1,700 outlets in the UK, wants to expand to more than 2,000 but said to support this it needed to change its supply chain.

Greggs operates 12 bakery sites but said that "unfortunately not all are suitable for long-term investment due to their location and size".

It plans to close sites in Edinburgh, Twickenham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire - and to use the proceeds to expand capacity at its nine remaining sites.

Chief executive Roger Whiteside said: "These are difficult changes that we believe are needed to support the long-term growth of the business."

Mr Whiteside is two years into a five-year plan to transform the firm to take advantage of Britain's £6bn a year "food to go" market.

Shares rose 14% following the announcement which came as Greggs reported a 25% rise in profits before exceptional items to £73m for the year to 2 January. Total sales climbed 5% to £835.7m.

Greggs highlighted particularly strong sales growth in sandwiches, new healthier ranges such as salads and no added sugar drinks. Soups and coffee also sold well.

Like-for-like sales increased 4.2% in the first eight weeks of its new financial year, recovering from a fourth-quarter dip, and the firm forecast another year of underlying growth.

Mandelson Warns Over Brexit Risk To UK Exports

Leaving the EU will lead to big tariffs on UK exports like cars, whisky and textiles - and higher prices in the shops because of import tariffs, Peter Mandelson is claiming.

In his first intervention in the referendum campaign, the former Labour trade minister and EU trade commissioner will accuse campaigners of "trying to sell people a fantasy".

He will also claim leaving the EU would be damaging for British business, and the alternative trade arrangements proposed by Brexit campaigners would be dangerous for Britain.

"Losing the EU’s preferential trading benefits in foreign markets could mean new tariffs of 10, 20%, or sometimes even more, on key UK exports such as cars, machine goods, whisky and textiles," Lord Mandelson will say.

"The UK would also potentially have to raise its own tariffs on imports from these markets as they would no longer be covered by WTO-compliant agreements."

:: If UK Quits EU: Answers To The Key Questions

Lord Mandelson will argue that trade is central to the referendum choice because Britain trades nearly half its exports into the EU and through the EU’s global trade deals we gain access to export markets round the world. 

He will say the EU conducts all trade policy as a single powerful bloc on behalf of its members, including Britain, and leaving the EU would mean losing domestic and international trading opportunities unless or until they were replaced with new ones - which would take time.

"Brexiters cannot argue that we are weakened in the EU as it is, but would suddenly be strong enough to dictate terms if we left," he will say.

"For every politician who saw the pragmatic case for dealing with the UK, there would be another who had little doubt that the UK must not be given a quick or easy ride.”

And endorsing the warning made in a Government dossier this week on what withdrawal from the EU would mean, Lord Mandelson will say: "The negotiation would mean years of uncertainty and in the worst case scenario a return to paying EU tariffs while a final deal on an FTA was struck."

While Lord Mandelson becomes the first senior Labour figure to take the fight to the Leave campaign, Tory eurosceptics will continue their fight for the lifting of a ban on Cabinet ministers campaigning to leave the EU being given Government documents by civil servants.

The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, will appear before the Public Administration Committee of MPs, chaired by leading eurosceptic Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, and be forced to explain his reasons for the ban.

And at the weekly Cabinet meeting in 10 Downing Street, Cabinet "outers" such as hardliner Iain Duncan Smith - who has pledged to defy the Prime Minister and order his civil servants to hand over key papers - may challenge David Cameron to lift the ban

China to Lay Off Millions of Workers in Next Three Years, Says Report

China will lay off as many as 6 million workers in the coming years in an attempt to improve the efficiency of the country’s slowing economy.

In an exclusive report, Reuters said Tuesday that 5 million to 6 million employees of state-controlled “zombie enterprises” will lose their jobs in the next three years as China attempts to restructure bloated state industries, such as steel and coal.

The initiative will be China’s most ambitious cost-cutting exercise in nearly 20 years, a source told Reuters.

Cool Hand Luke And Naked Gun Star Dies Aged 91

George Kennedy, who won an Oscar for his role in the 1967 classic Cool Hand Luke, has died at the age of 91.

Starring opposite Paul Newman, Kennedy played the role of chain-gang boss Dragline.

The film received four Academy Award nominations and Kennedy was named best supporting actor.

He carved out a niche as one of Hollywood's most recognisable supporting actors.

He had a part in the hit 1970 film Airport, and appeared in several sequels.

Kennedy turned to comedy in the 1980s and 1990s, the most memorable being the three Naked Gun films.

Among his later credits was a small role in Wim Wenders' 2005 film, Don't Come Knocking, and his last on-screen role was in the 2014 remake of The Gambler, starring Mark Wahlberg.

Border Tensions After Migrants And Police Clash

Authorities in Macedonia and France are braced for further possible clashes with migrants after tensions flared yesterday.

Army trucks are at a railway line near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija this morning in anticipation of more trouble.

And riot police have arrived at the 'Jungle' camp in Calais ahead of a second planned day of demolition of part of the camp, which is home to around 4,000 people wanting to reach the UK.

A bulldozer used in the demolition at the Calais 'Jungle'

In Macedonia yesterday, hundreds of migrants and refugees stormed the border from Greece - prompting police to fire tear gas as several migrants were nearly trampled and one officer injured.

Austria and several Balkan states have placed caps on the number of migrants who can use the main route into the heart of Europe, creating bottlenecks all the way back to Greece.

people, including children, remain stuck at or near the border crossing at Idomeni in Greece, with another 500 at a makeshift camp on a small concrete strip around 13 miles away.

Police chiefs from Balkan and East European countries are meeting to discuss how to stem the flow of people coming from Turkey and Greece as they try to pass through Europe.

Greece is thought to have 25,000 migrants stranded in the country, with many thousands sleeping in parks and fields as refugee shelters quickly overflow.

Meanwhile, at Calais, the first day of efforts to dismantle part of the 'Jungle' camp saw trouble flare between police and migrants.

Children were among those affected by tear gas fired by police as the bulldozing began. The tear gas was reportedly in response to protesters hurling stones as shanty dwellings were torn down.

Officers also used water hoses to disperse migrants, while fires broke out in some of the shacks.

Last night French police responded with tear gas after 150 migrants threw rocks and struck vehicles heading for England on a port road which runs next to the notorious slum.

The demolition work got under way after a legal ruling cleared the way for the mass evictions from the most populated half of the site.

The plan is for people to be relocated to converted shipping containers nearby and reception centres across France, but campaigners have warned there is not enough alternative accommodation and want the relocation to be delayed.

Super Tuesday: Huge Day In US Presidential Race

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have campaigned heavily ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday contests, which could see the two frontrunner candidates take unassailable leads over their White House rivals.

The presidential hopefuls appealed to voters in a dozen states ahead of Super Tuesday, which will see nearly 600 Republican delegates up for grabs and some 859 Democratic delegates at stake.

Democrat Mrs Clinton, who defeated Bernie Sanders in the South Carolina primary on the weekend, travelled to several states on Monday to urge a strong turnout among voters.

Hillary Returns To Arkansas For Super Tuesday

"I need your help to go and vote tomorrow, to bring people to vote with you," she implored a crowd in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Mrs Clinton also attacked the Republican campaign rhetoric.

"I really regret the language being used by Republicans. Scapegoating people, finger-pointing, blaming," she said in Fairfax, Virginia.

"That is not how we should behave toward one another. We're going to demonstrate starting tomorrow on Super Tuesday. There's a different path that Americans ought to take."

On the eve of Super Tuesday, Mr Trump received the backing of some big names in NASCAR during a rally in Valdosta, Georgia.

:: Is 'Dangerous' Donald's Campaign Unstoppable?

He appeared alongside NASCAR chief executive Brian France and several current and former drivers.

The drivers included two-time Daytona 500 champion Bill Elliott and his son, Chase Elliott, whom Mr Trump described as "the hottest young driver in the world".

NASCAR disavowed Mr Trump last summer after he kicked off his campaign with a speech in which he referred to immigrants from Mexico as rapists and drug dealers.

The sport pulled its events from Mr Trump's Doral hotel and resort in Miami at the time.

:: When Does Each State Vote?

Republicans will vote in 11 states on Tuesday. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the nomination at the July convention.

Democrats will be voting in 11 states and American Samoa, with 859 delegates at stake.

Mr Trump has been targeted by increasingly personal attacks from his Republican rivals in recent days.

The mainstream favourite Marco Rubio has been stressing that Mr Trump would have serious weaknesses as a presidential candidate.

The Florida senator warned supporters in Tennessee that US media and critics will jump on Mr Trump "like the hounds of hell" if he wins the nomination.

Twitter Has Lost a Staggering Amount of Money

When Twitter went public back in 2013, it was an unprofitable company. More than two years later, that hasn’t changed. In fact, the company revealed in its annual 10-K filed Feb. 29 that it has lost more than $2 billion in total since launching a decade ago.

Twitter had already accrued more than $400 million in losses before going public, but that figure exploded upward after its IPO, largely due to stock-based compensation awarded to employees. The company lost $520 million in 2015 alone.

Like many companies, though, Twitter prefers to talk about adjusted earnings, which exclude stock-based compensation and some other expenses. These are the figures Wall Street investors tend to focus on. By that measure, Twitter had a net income of $277 million in 2015.

But anxiety over Twitter today has less to do with whether or not the company can earn money now and more to do with its prospects in the future. Wall Street appears skeptical that Twitter can effectively grow its user base, serve those users more ads and substantially increase its revenue. The company’s stock sunk below $20 per share at the start of the year, off from a high around $70, and has yet to recover.

Twitter is well aware of its own troubles. Elsewhere in the 10-K the company vows to emphasize live-streaming video, crack down on abusive accounts and “demonstrate our value proposition to a larger audience” through product improvements this year.