Karen Peattie

Scottish business confidence higher than UK among small firms

Aberdeen energy group Wood ‘making good progress’ with strong order book

LEADING entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter is calling on Scotland’s new First Minister to reset the Scottish Government’s relationship with the business community, overhaul the nation’s tax system and deal with the current housing emergency as a priority.

Entrepreneurs offer advice to business owner facing cash flow issues

RETAIL footfall in Scotland dropped again in April with a decline felt across all retail destinations apart from Edinburgh which put in a “positive performance”, according to the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC).

SHELL’S first-quarter performance may be “staggering”, as one analyst put it, but the energy giant still has a lot of work to do if it is convince investors that it is committed to tighter climate targets.

ENERGY giant Shell beat expectations to deliver a first-quarter profit of nearly $8 billion despite disruptions in Russia and the Red Sea, pledging to give shareholders $3.5bn (£2.8bn) in share buybacks over the next three months.

AIRLINE and holiday company easyJet is confident that demand for travel will remain strong this summer despite higher fuel costs and recording heavy losses over the winter, the second worst since it was founded in 1995.

THOSE of a certain vintage will recall the publicity surrounding easyJet when the airline’s founder, the Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, launched the low-cost carrier back in 1995, its first-ever flight – from London Luton to Glasgow Airport – taking off on November 10 that year, followed by Luton-Edinburgh a fortnight later.