Category: Business News

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Net migration has fallen to the lowest level for three years after a surge in the number of EU nationals leaving the UK since last June’s Brexit vote.

Net migration – the difference between those entering and leaving the UK – fell 81,000 to 246,000 in the year to March 2017.

More than half that change is due to a decrease in net migration of EU citizens, which is down 51,000.

The government is committed to reducing net migration to below 100,000.

• Non-EU students ‘not staying illegally’

Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis welcomed the new figures, saying: “It was good to see a third quarter running of net migration figures coming down”.

But business groups raised concerns about the fall, with the CBI saying: “The loss of these vital skills should concern us all.”

The ONS figures show a particularly sharp rise, of 17,000, in departures of citizens from the so-called EU8 countries – Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

An ONS spokesman said: “These results indicate that the EU referendum result may be influencing people’s decision to migrate into and out of the UK, particularly EU and EU8 citizens.

“It is too early to tell if this is an indication of a long-term trend.”

The ONS figures show that immigration from all countries has fallen – and emigration has also risen.

Exit checks

International migration for work remains the most likely reason to move, said the ONS, but it added that people are now more likely to move if they have a definite job, rather than to just look for work.

A spokesman for the Institute of Directors said “no one should celebrate these numbers”.

“Given unemployment is currently at its lowest level ever (4.5%), without the three million EU citizens living here the UK would have an acute labour shortage.

“Signs that it is becoming a less attractive place to live and work are a concern,” he added.

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Analysis

By BBC Home Affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani

Are there other factors beyond a suspected Brexit effect?

Since the Brexit referendum, the falls in the pound on currency markets mean that money made in the UK buys less back home.

This is really important for workers who are sending cash back to their families – and a decisive factor in decisions to move all around the world.

Last June, the pound bought almost 6 Polish zlotys. Today, it buys only 4.6 zlotys.

What’s more, when people choose to move to another country, they’re not just looking at the circumstances there, but, fairly obviously, at the conditions at home.

And there is no doubt that for some EU workers, coming to the UK isn’t the slam-dunk deal it once was.

Read Dominic’s full analysis

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Matthew Percival, head of employment at the CBI, said EU nationals made a “crucial contribution” to the economy.

“This latest data reflects a trend many businesses have seen – an increase in the number of EU citizens leaving the country,” he said.

“The loss of these vital skills should concern us all, underlining the importance of urgently providing certainty for millions of workers and their families.”

The government has also published the first ever “exit checks” data – a proper count of all people who are actually known to have left the UK.

For the year to March 2017, the data shows that 97% of students from outside the EU with a visa to enter the UK are known to have complied with the terms of their visa by either departing the UK or remaining in the country by extending their visas.

It is not clear what had happened to the remaining 3% whose visas had expired.

The data also shows that 95% of international students either leave at the end of their studies or are given permission to stay on for some other reason.

This previously unknown figure runs contrary to repeated claims that international students are abusing the immigration system to stay illegally in the UK.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said it showed Theresa May’s “long-running campaign to malign international students” was “based on fantasy”.

And Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the NHS was facing recruitment problems due to the lack of EU workers – and the UK needed a migration policy based on the “economic needs” of the country.

The Lib Dems called the overall drop in net migration a “deeply worrying Brexodus of EU citizens”, blaming the government’s failure to guarantee their rights to stay in the UK after Brexit.

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UK consumers are continuing to put less money into savings accounts, according to new figures from the High Street banks.

Personal deposits grew by just 2.3% in July, the lowest growth rate for eight years, and below the rate of inflation. Cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas) also saw a big annual decline.

Consumers put £162m into bank Isas in July, a drop of 3.3% compared to July 2016.

That is the largest fall since 2007.

• Savings rate at record low
• Savings bond goes on sale

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has already reported that the savings rate – the amount that households save out of their income – fell to just 1.7% in the first quarter of 2017, the lowest rate recorded.

One reason might be the fact that, since April, wages have risen more slowly than inflation, meaning people cannot afford to save as much.

However, the ONS has said the savings ratio has been falling since 2015, suggesting that the decline may be driven by low interest rates, which make savings less attractive.

UK Finance, which represents the banks, said tax changes were also be a factor.

Since April 2016, savers have been allowed to make £1,000 a year in interest without paying tax.

That makes Isas, which are free of both income and capital gains tax, less attractive.

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Brazil’s government has abolished a vast national reserve in the Amazon to open up the area to mining.

The area, covering 46,000 sq km (17,800 sq miles), straddles the northern states of Amapa and Para, and is thought to be rich in gold, and other minerals.

The government said nine conservation and indigenous land areas within it would continue to be legally protected.

But activists have voiced concern that these areas could be badly compromised.

A decree from President Michel Temer abolished a protected area known as the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca).

Its size is larger than Denmark and about 30% of it will be open to mining.

The mining and energy ministry says protected forest areas and indigenous reserves will not be affected.

“The objective of the measure is to attract new investments, generating wealth for the country and employment and income for society, always based on the precepts of sustainability,” the ministry said in a statement.

But opposition Senator Randolfe Rodrigues denounced the move as “the biggest attack on the Amazon of the last 50 years”, O Globo newspaper reported (in Portuguese).

Maurício Voivodic, head of the conservation body WWF in Brazil, warned last month that mining in the area would lead to “demographic explosion, deforestation, the destruction of water resources, the loss of biodiversity and the creation of land conflict”.

Amazon culture clash

Loss of Indigenous lands threatens climate

Indigenous leaders fight for survival

According to the WWF report, the main area of interest for copper and gold exploration is in one of the protected areas, the Biological Reserve of Maicuru.

There is also said to be gold in the Para State forest, which lies within the area.

The WWF says there is potential for conflict too in two indigenous reserves that are home to various ethnic communities living in relative isolation.

WWF’s report said that a “gold rush in the region could create irreversible damage to these cultures”.

“If the government insisted on opening up these areas for mining without discussing environmental safeguards it will have to deal with an international outcry.”

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New Balance has won a record payout in a Chinese trademark case after three local shoemakers were found to have infringed the brand’s “N” logo.

A Chinese court awarded the US sportswear firm more than 10 million yuan (£1.2m; $1.5m).

Lawyers believe it to be the highest award to a foreign company in a trademark dispute in China.

The country has been tightening its laws to tackle the widespread problem of trademark abuse.

A court in the city of Suzhou, west of Shanghai, handed down a ruling last week against three defendants for infringing the American apparel-maker’s iconic trademark, and the deceptive promotion of their products.

Though small by international standards, the 10 million yuan award marks a significant increase on previous penalties as China cracks down on brand theft.

“It’s definitely the largest trademark award to a foreign company,” said Paolo Beconcini, senior global brand protection consultant at law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

Trademark reform

China has been strengthening its trademark laws since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Mr Beconcini, who has worked on Chinese intellectual property (IP) cases for 15 years, said recent legislative reforms have significantly boosted brand protection.

The changes include higher thresholds for statutory damages, new punitive damages for repeat infringers, and the establishment of four specialised IP courts.

“China is not what it was in 2001,” Beconcini said, “Rights can be enforced in China… you can win cases.”

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Last year US basketball legend Michael Jordan won a trademark dispute in China’s supreme court in a long-running dispute over the use of his name by a local sportswear company.

But while defences for companies exist, trademark violations remain widespread.

“For every big brand that is infringed in China, there are many, many less famous brands that are victims of this situation,” Mr Beconcini said.

New Balance has been involved in long-running trademark battles in China where is has more than 2,000 stores.

The firm took a knock last year when a Chinese court ruled against it for trademark infringements and ordered New Balance to pay 5 million yuan in compensation to a local company.

But its latest win is seen as a victory for international firms in China.

Carol Wang, a lawyer at Lusheng Law Firm, which represented New Balance told Reuters the decision “sends a strong and powerful message that should make it easier for foreign brands doing business here.”

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Orange Fiber

From fashion to energy – the rind and seeds of Sicily’s most famous citrus fruit, the humble orange, are being used in a range of greener, healthier business initiatives.

In 2011, Adriana Santonocito was a design student in Milan when she first had the idea of making sustainable textiles from what was naturally abundant, and widely wasted, in her native Sicilian city of Catania.

Her challenge was to find a way for the rinds of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oranges to be put to good use.

Now, thanks to her creative thinking, it is possible to make whole items of clothing using fibre that originated from the fruit.

Chemical process

Ms Santonocito’s concept was inspired by a question posed in her university dissertation. Could a luxurious silk foulard be made from citrus by-products, that would otherwise be thrown away or fed to cattle?

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The question was particularly relevant in Sicily, where many thousands of tonnes of citrus fruit are juiced every year, leaving massive amounts of waste.

The 39-year-old found her answer in the university’s labs, and it earned her a patent.

It was already known that cellulose could be extracted from orange rinds. But Ms Santonocito discovered that, using chemical re-agents, it could then be turned into yarn, which could be dyed and blended with other textiles, such as cotton or polyester.

Together with her university colleague Enrica Arena, she founded Orange Fiber in 2014, and set about selling the silk-like material to clothes-makers.

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Orange Fiber

This year, the famous Italian fashion label Salvatore Ferragamo used it in its spring-summer collection. The aim was to make its high-end shirts, dresses and foulards more sustainable.

Orange Fiber, which now has a team of 12 people, operates from a local juice-processing plant, where it gets its waste material for free.

The business is partially seasonal, operating during the months of the year when the juice-maker works. But once the orange rind has been transformed into cellulose, it can be put in storage for use later.

Antonio Perdichizzi, an early investor in Orange Fiber, says the firm stood out to him because, unlike most innovative start-ups in Italy, it isn’t digital.

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Orange Fiber

“Italy doesn’t invest much in innovation, but brilliant ideas and skills win despite a lack of resources,” he adds.

Rosario Faraci, a professor of business, economics and management at the University of Catania, says the firm is an example of how “creativity and entrepreneurial spirit” is creating new jobs and businesses in the region.

Fibre – not fat

Oranges could also make baked goods healthier, and stay fresher, thanks to a new procedure which transforms them into an innovative fat-free flour.

The new technique is currently being tested at the University of Catania and results are encouraging.

At the moment, almost all bakers use fat, such as butter or margarine in their cooking.

But according to the research, half of this fat could be replaced by using flour obtained from orange rinds, seeds, and part of the pulp not used in juice-making.

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Orietta Scardino

Like Orange Fiber, the researchers obtain the raw materials they need from local juice makers. They wash the rinds to remove the bitter flavour, then dry, process and whiten what remains.

Salvatore Barbagallo, a professor of agriculture at the University of Catania, says the flour is “perfectly sustainable” and costs almost nothing to produce. It also has “no impact” on the taste and fragrance of food that contains it.

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More stories from the BBC’s Business Brain series looking at quirky or unusual business topics from around the world:

Elvis still earning a fortune 40 years after his death

Can ice cream vans stage a comeback?

The businesses capitalising on 24-hour sunlight

Do you have to avoid huggers at work?

The homeowners hiring out their houses as film sets

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His researchers made 300kg of the flour and got local bakers in Acireale, near Catania, to try it out.

The cooks, known for being conservative about new ingredients, were all happy with the results and could taste no difference in their pastries.

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Orietta Scardino

The researchers say they have found other uses for the flour, too.

It is soluble and can be added to drinks to provide health benefits. It could also be used by nutritionists and in medicine.

Natural fuel

Sicilian farmers have always used orange rinds as animal feed or fertiliser. But oranges can be a precious source of energy as well.

In Mussomeli, an ancient town near Caltanissetta in the middle of Sicily, orange waste products are used to make biogas which is turned into electricity.

The farm Nuova Scala used about 16,430 tonnes of rinds last year to produce 24,000 kWh of electricity.

Output varies depending on the amount of oranges produced, and the firm expects to get through 22,000 tonnes of orange waste in 2017.

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Of course, all of these projects depend on local fruit companies, which produce many thousands of tonnes of citrus by-products annually.

Salvatore Imbesi, who owns the producer AgrumiGel, says the rinds, seeds and other non-edible parts of the fruit are called “pastazzo”, and he produces about 40,000 tonnes of it a year.

He says Sicily as a whole produces about 200,000 tonnes, although unofficial estimates suggest the real figure could be higher.

Producers have an incentive to re-use pastazzo, because disposal can be expensive. Mr Imbesi says that in Sicily the total cost of disposal can reach 16m euros every year, “six for the cost of the transport, and 10 for the disposal itself”.

Some of Sicily’s fruit is sold fresh, including its famous blood oranges, with the rest turned into juices.

In 2016, the amount juiced included some 140,000 tonnes of lemons, 100,000 tonnes of blonde oranges, 100,000 tonnes of blood oranges, 20,000 tonnes of green mandarins and 20,000 tonnes of matured mandarins.

Finally, thanks to the new crop of innovative solutions, the squeezed fruit are being turned from expensive waste into exciting products.

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As if flying wasn’t already enough of a chore, there’s an increasing number of studies showing climate change might make it worse.

Changes to the jet stream could make flights longer and more turbulent.

And higher temperatures could affect the maximum takeoff weight, meaning more weight restrictions and even flight cancellations.

The problems could have an effect on the profits of airlines, which are already operating on slim margins.

Bumpier journeys

Research from Reading University has found that flights could become lengthier and more turbulent because of climate change.

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Climate change will make the jet stream stronger, and while tailwinds will help flights in one direction, headwinds will slow them down on the return leg.

This effect doesn’t cancel itself out, and in fact on the transatlantic route, the costs could amount to $22m (£17m) in additional fuel every year.

The same researchers found that a more powerful and unpredictable jet stream could increase the number of incidents of severe turbulence by 149%.

This could increase the risk of injury and add to an airline’s insurance costs.

Boeing says its planes can be equipped to counter the effects of turbulence as well as to avoid it altogether.

But flying around turbulence could lengthen the flight and add to fuel costs.

Taking off

A study in July looked at five different commonly-used planes, and found that 10-30% of flights could require some weight restriction by the middle of the century due to rising temperatures.

That could mean a reduction in passengers and cargo of between 0.5-2%.

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The problem is that a wing’s lift is directly related to the density of the air flowing past it: the denser the air, the greater the lift.

In extreme heat, the air becomes less dense, making take-off harder.

Engines are affected too, because they create less thrust.

As a result, a plane might have a lower maximum take-off weight, or it might need more space on a runway to get airborne.

Heat limits

For most major passenger jets, the maximum operating temperature is around the 49C, give or take a few degrees depending on the aircraft.

At the moment, those temperatures are mercifully rare.

Still, major airlines were forced to delay or cancel dozens of flights out of Las Vegas and Phoenix airports in June due to a heat wave.

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The concern is that climate change will make it more common.

While deserts are obviously the most affected, the study’s author Ethan Coffel says some Asian airports – Bangkok and Hong Kong, for example – could see a substantial fraction of long-haul flights requiring some takeoff weight restriction during the hottest parts of the day.

Slim margins

Mr Coffel thinks the problem could be a “non-trivial” addition to an airline’s costs, which will come in the form of reduced payloads.

This is an industry with slim profit margins and on any given flight the difference between making a profit or a loss might boil down to just a few passengers. It’s why airlines overbook flights.

This year, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) expects the airline industry globally to make a profit margin of 4.1% and to keep $7.54 for each passenger, but this is a good year and those figures are much lower outside the lucrative US market.

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Some industry-watchers feel the research is extremely speculative, because it deals with conditions that are several decades away.

“It could be an issue very long term, but you’ve got to expect aircraft performance will improve, or maybe people will fly less,” said FlightGlobal’s Greg Waldron.

Fewer freezes

Canadian manufacturer Bombardier says airlines that operate in very hot cities tend to get around the problem by scheduling flights in the evening or early in the morning to operate in lower temperatures.

Boeing says its customers can order a “high and hot” package, which improves performance with slightly more thrust and slightly larger control devices on the wing.

But Ethan Coffel notes that those solutions aren’t free.

“There is always an opportunity cost – performance would have been better without climate change,” he said.

At the other end of the spectrum, flights are sometimes cancelled due to cold weather too.

For example, more than 6,000 flights were cancelled in the US because of a storm in March, mostly due to icy conditions on the runway.

So if the climate continues to get warmer, would a few flights cancellations in Phoenix be balanced out by fewer cancellations in Toronto because of less freezing weather?

“It is possible that cold weather impacts could be reduced – that would be a useful future research area,” said Ethan Coffel.

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Uber is still losing money, but the ride-hailing firm appears to have stemmed the flow of cash to some degree.

The company lost about $645m in the second quarter of the year, down 14% from the same period in 2016, according to figures given to the website Axios.

Revenue reached $1.75bn in the second quarter – more than double the figure for the same period last year.

Uber also said drivers earned about $50m in tips since June.

The number of trips in the quarter soared 150% year-on-year, with the fastest growth coming in developing markets.

The privately owned company has recently started to reveal some of its financial information.

It has been under a microscope, after a series of scandals that led to the departure of Travis Kalanick as chief executive.

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US President Donald Trump’s luxury hotel in Scotland has received a £110,000 tax rebate meant to help struggling small businesses.

The £11m Trump Turnberry resort in Ayrshire has had its property tax reduced by £109,530, South Ayrshire Council has confirmed.

The relief cuts the hotel’s annual rates bill by 13.5%.

The business rates relief scheme was launched to help revive the country’s struggling tourism industry.

In February, Scotland’s finance secretary placed a 12.5% cap on rising business rates for 8,500 firms in the hospitality sector, which includes hotels, restaurants, cafes, pubs and other businesses.

South Ayrshire Council said that the tax relief awarded for the 2017-18 financial year was mandatory and as such, had to be awarded.

Trump Turnberry, a luxury golf course resort, is expecting record revenues of up to £18m this year and has forecast a profit after years of losses.

“From the business we have on the books so far, the pace is telling me the Trump Turnberry will have its best year of revenue in 100 years,” Trump Turnberry’s general manager, Ralph Porciani, told the Guardian in January.

The information first came to light in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by Scottish news site The Ferret, as part of a joint investigation with the Guardian.

“Our hospitality rates relief is available to 8,500 businesses and 100,000 small business properties – half of all properties – pay no rates at all,” said a Scottish government spokesman.

“It is for businesses to apply for rates relief and for councils to ensure those which do are eligible.

“The Barclay Review, published today, provides recommendations for further reforming the system including around golf courses, and ministers will respond to the report swiftly.”

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A shake-up at mining giant BHP suggests that pressure from activist shareholders is starting to bite.

BHP has replaced two directors and said it will sell its shale gas operations, while reporting a surge in profits.

The moves are precisely what two of its biggest shareholders have been demanding.

The shares are on the up on the news, but a big question is how much further will the “activists” drive the company?

Leading them is Elliott Management, the New York-based hedge fund which now holds 5% of BHP’s shares.

Demands

Earlier this year it demanded four big changes at Billiton:

• Drop its dual London/Australia listing and be incorporated in Australia.
• Increase returns to shareholders
• Get BHP out of shale and review its petroleum operations.
• Make sweeping changes on the BHP board

A month or so after these demands were published the Australian boutique hedge fund Tribeca stepped into the fray.

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BHP

It sent an eight-page letter to its investors entitled “Making BHP Great Again”, calling for roughly the same measures.

However, Richard Knights, mining analyst at the brokerage and investment bank Liberum, says that even with its 5% stake Elliott has limited influence.

But he adds: “They’ve been loud in terms of getting their message across, and BHP seems to have been prompted by shareholders to make changes.”

The exit from shale is the most obvious change.

BHP had bought into the industry at the top of the market in the gas fracking boom in 2011.

A slump in oil prices forced a $7.2bn write down last year and analysts expect BHP will now get $10bn for the business – about half what it paid for it.

Whether BHP is going to go further and get out of its oil operations as well seems unlikely.

Mr Knights says: “Even if Elliott thinks they should review their oil operations, BHP has made it clear with these last results that it is not going to get out of oil because it believes the oil price is going to go up.”

Elliott believes changing BHP’s dual listing in London and Sydney could increase the value of the company by $11bn by changing the way its dividends to shareholders are taxed.

Mr Knights believes the changes might work, but feels it would be complex and expensive.

Board shake-up

The more significant changes, announced on Wednesday, are on BHP’s board of directors.

In June Elliott backed the appointment of Ken MacKenzie to succeed Jac Nasser as chairman. This, Elliott said, was “a constructive step in bringing much needed change to the direction of BHP”.

Mr MacKenzie, who starts next month, is from the packaging group Amcor which he had transformed from an Australian business into a Swiss-based global operation stretching across 40 countries.

Now BHP has said two other members of the board are to be replaced.

Grant King, formerly of Origin Energy and only appointed as a director in March, stood down, “owing to concerns expressed by some investors,” according to BHP’s statement.

These “concerns” are over his 16-year tenure at Origin. The company grew impressively while he was there, but crucially he backed the building of a $19.7bn liquefied natural gas plant which led to a plunge in the company’s share price in 2015 and massive write downs.

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Similarly, it is shadows from the past that have forced another director, Malcolm Brinded, to step down. He was formerly Head of Upstream at the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell.

Italian prosecutors are alleging that he, along with other executives at Shell and the Italian energy group Eni, were involved in a series of kick-backs and bribes connected with the rights to a huge Nigerian offshore oil block, known as OPL 245. All the accused have denied any wrongdoing.

In their place have come Terry Bowen, from Australia’s Wesfarmers, and John Mogford, who spent 33 years at BP.

The shareholders, however, seem to want more scalps, specifically the removal of the chief executive Andrew Mackenzie.

In May Tribeca analyst James Eginton told Reuters “The problem with the current CEO is he’s an appointment of the current board. From that perspective we’d be looking at seeing the CEO moving on.”

For now, however, Mackenzie seems secure.

Mr Knights says: “Tribeca seems to have some issues about the decisions that Mackenzie has been making. But really his future depends on how his relationship now develops with the chairman.”

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Corporate giants Walmart and Google are teaming up to enter the voice-shopping market, currently dominated by Amazon.

From next month, US consumers will be able to buy Walmart products using the voice-activated Google Assistant platform on phones and home devices.

Amazon’s AI virtual assistant Alexa already enables users to shop directly from the online retail giant.

The partnership enables Walmart to challenge Amazon’s dominance of the US voice shopping market.

Walmart’s head of e-commerce Marc Lore wrote in a blog post that the retailer plans to expand the use of voice-activated shopping across its 4,700 stores to “create customer experiences that don’t currently exist within voice shopping anywhere else”.

For example, Walmart, which owns the UK’s Asda supermarket, could offer consumers the choice of picking up an order in store at a discount, or enable users to use voice shopping to purchase fresh groceries across the country.

Hundreds of thousands of products will be available.

Pushing back

Amazon has long challenged brick-and-mortar retailers by offering items at cheaper prices, often with free delivery.

Even though most retailers now have their own online stores, Amazon continues to dominate online sales, and the threat has only increased with its forays into same-day delivery and artificial intelligence-based voice shopping.

Google has been offering high street retailers a way to fight back by offering their products on its Google Express online shopping mall.

Walmart will be offering the most items of any retailer on the Google Express platform. All users must do is link their Walmart accounts to Google Express.

Tesco to start same-day delivery across UK

Asda reveals 2016 slump in sales

Amazon accuses Walmart of being a bully

Miriam Burt, a research vice president in retail at Gartner, said that the move is not just about revenue or technology, but more about making customers’ lives easier.

“We need to watch the cohort of customers that’s starting to grow around this, particularly Gen Z, which is anyone born after 1995, who are highly influential,” Ms Burt told the BBC. “They’re very much into conversational commerce, through instant messengers like WhatsApp, Facedook Messenger and WeChat.

“If you translate that into this, shopping is very convenient for them with voice activation. But whatever way you interact with the retailer, it has to be a really good customer experience from start to finish. If parts of that experience are bad, it will be very hard for the customer to be loyal.”

Grocery deliveries

Walmart has been making a gradual march onto Amazon’s turf.

In April, Amazon expanded the Prime Now same-day delivery service to include certain items like food and medicines. Now Walmart has teamed up with ride-hailing app Uber to offer online grocery deliveries in six states.

In June, Amazon accused Walmart of “bullying” its technology suppliers into shunning Amazon’s cloud computing service.

Walmart has also challenged Amazon by offering discounts to customers who buy online and pick up in-store, and free two-day shipping for purchases of $35 or more. The latter move prompted Amazon to lower its own threshold for free shipping in order to stay competitive.

Over the past two years, Amazon has been making an increasing play for offline bricks-and-mortar shops – from the physical book shop Amazon Books, launched in Seattle in 2015, to its ongoing acquisition of the organic food chain Whole Foods.

Amazon also has a grocery delivery deal in the UK with Morrisons supermarket.