More people lost their jobs in the UK manufacturing sector in November than any other month for more than seven years, as the industry continued a months-long losing streak.
The pace of job losses hit its steepest level since September 2012, according to new data from the closely watched IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) survey.
It found that uncertainty around Brexit, attempts to slash costs, and redundancies had all played roles in the process.
"The pace of job losses also hit a seven-year high as firms sought to reduce overheads in the face of falling sales," said Rob Dobson, director at IHS Markit.
READ MORE: North Sea believer eyes £500m prize after confounding doubters
Meanwhile, the sector scored 48.9 in November, lower than its 49.6 score in October. Anything below 50 means the sector is contracting. However, market watchers might take some relief from the fact that it beat preliminary figures of 48.3, released for the first time ever two weeks ago.
The sector was hit as companies continued to eat up the stockpiles they had built up in anticipation of a no-deal Brexit.
Online supermarket and tech firm Ocado has launched a £500 million bond to fund new warehouses and expansion into global markets, the company has announced.
The firm said bondholders will receive between 0.75% and 1.25% interest per year and are set to be repaid in full in 2025.
READ MORE: Barrhead Travel to open 20 new stores by March
Ocado said: "The net proceeds of the issue of the bonds will be used to fund capital expenditure in relation to Ocado Solutions' commitments and general corporate purposes."
In launching the bond, the company added that sales in the 13 weeks to December 1 are expected to grow between 10% and 11%.
But investors appeared uneasy at the plans to burden Ocado with debt, sending stock down more than 6% in early trading. Shares fell 80.5p to 1244.5p.
One in five smaller businesses say they will close in the next 12 months if Christmas is below average, a new survey suggests.
A poll of senior decision makers at small and medium-sized businesses showed that 22% of them thought they would close within a year of a poor Christmas. About 8% said this could happen within a matter of weeks.
READ MORE: Danger of no-deal Brexit to growth flagged
The vital Christmas period is seen as a bellwether of performance on the high street, with several larger chains also relying heavily on sales over the holiday period to prop up their top and bottom lines.
The survey from Notonthehighstreet raises the possibility of more bankruptcies in 2020, after several well-known high street brands closed their doors this year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article