Primark to launch home service ‘by end of 2027’; Saudi state oil company reports jump in profits despite attacks – business live

Garry White, chief investment commentator at the US investment bank Raymond James, said that Primark will need a disciplined returns policy for its planned new home delivery service. Home delivery is an obvious gap in Primark’s proposition, but it will need to be managed carefully given the retailer’s position at the value end of the market. The experience of other online fashion retailers shows that shoppers often order multiple sizes or styles with the intention of returning unwanted items, resulting in far higher return rates than those seen in physical stores. Returns can be expensive, generating costs related to shipping, handling, quality checks, repackaging and, in some cases, markdowns on items that can no longer be sold at full price. As a result, Primark will need a disciplined returns policy if it is to keep costs under control and protect margins. The struggling British supermarket chain Asda has appointed the 69-year-old former Morrisons boss, David Potts, as chief executive with immediate effect. Allan Leighton, 73, who has served as Asda’s executive chairman since November 2024, will take a step back and become non-executive chair “as planned,” Asda said. Leighton said: I am really excited to have appointed David as Group CEO. Over the last two years, we have stabilised the business and returned it to some growth and begun to establish Asda as ‘more than a supermarket’ through our Formula for Growth strategy. David has an outstanding record in our industry, his experience is exactly what we now require for the next stage of our transformation and beyond and it will be great to work with him. And Potts said: Asda has long been a great business, one I’ve admired and traded against over many years. The colleagues are remarkable, some of the most passionate I’ve met. The business has made good progress but significant opportunities remain and I’m delighted and very proud to have been asked by Allan to lead the team. Providing value to families across the UK has always been in Asda’s DNA and by making improvements to the shopping trip every week, which customers can experience and feel in their pockets, we will revitalise the business and bring benefits for all our stakeholders, including our 116,296 very hard-working colleagues. Christmas is upon us and the business has a clear focus on keeping Asda prices locked low at this important time for our customers. I’m excited to get started. In August, Asda heralded its first trading growth in more than two years, with Leighton saying that it was attracting more shoppers with lower prices and an improved online service. However, Aldi is poised to overtake Asda to become the UK’s third-largest supermarket, with less than 1 percentage point separating them. They may be two of the most recognisable brands in Britain, with a combined 188 years serving shoppers, but industry watchers agree that either Asda or Morrisons – or both – could disappear within a decade. Exciting news for Primark shoppers: it will launch a home delivery service in Great Britain before the end of next year. George Weston, the chief executive of the clothing chain’s parent company Associated British Foods, told Reuters: Home delivery, we’ll launch by the end of 2027. We’re sure it will be incremental [for sales] and profitable. ABF intends to spin off Primark in December 2027, separating it from its sugar business. In September, ABF said Primark would launch home delivery “in the future”. Until now, the company – which already offers a click and collect service – has shied away from home delivery, arguing that its low prices made it too difficult to absorb the cost of packing and shipping orders. Stock markets have fallen in early trading, as new strikes by the US on Iran led to a rebound in crude oil prices, dampening hopes for new peace talks to bring the eight-month war to an end. The UK’s FTSE 100 index is down nearly 44 points at 10,717, a 0.4% drop. Germany’s Dax slid 1%, France’s CAC 40 is down 0.6%, and Italy’s FTSE MiB and Spain’s Ibex both lost around 0.9%. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, is trading 1.7% higher at $106.55, a day after it fell sharply towards $103 a barrel. The US carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the strait of Hormuz, a US official said – a day after Iran signalled it was open to peace talks and Donald Trump also suggested he would give diplomacy a chance until after the US midterm elections. The strikes also came hours after the US vice-president, JD Vance, said he was optimistic that diplomatic efforts to end the war were moving in the right direction. Primark owner Associated British Foods is is among the main FTSE 100 losers, after it forecast another year of falling profits because of deeper losses in its sugar business and weaker sales at Primark. Mining shares Anglo American, Antofagasta, Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining and commodities trader Glencore are leading the blue-chip index lower. Hugo Boss shares fell 2.6% in early trading in Frankfurt after the German fashion retailer cut its sales and profit outlook as it pointed to weak consumer demand. Bucking the trend, shares in the German pharmaceuticals and crop science company Bayer jumped 5.6% after it lifted its 2026 profit outlook. Virgin Media O2 is to cut thousands of UK jobs in an £800m cost-cutting drive as the telecommunications company aims to tackle its £22bn debt pile. VMO2, which is jointly owned by the British-Dutch-American telecoms company Liberty Global and Spain’s Telefónica, said £300m of the savings target will come from job cuts that will reduce the company’s employee wage bill by 30% over the next two years. The company did not specify how many jobs this will equate to, but it could be as many as 25% of its 16,000 workforce. The company, which said that most of the job losses will come from non-customer facing roles, said it intends to increase the use of AI tools in areas including customer service, network planning and fault management. The VMO2 chief executive, Lutz Schüler, said: While we will give a fuller update on the new strategic plan in the coming months, we are already progressing and making difficult decisions to prioritise investments and reduce costs which includes the size of our workforce. Standing still and doing what we’ve always done is not an option and while many of these decisions are tough, they are necessary for our future success and growth. Virgin Media O2 must evolve, and the action needed to make that happen starts now. Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. The Saudi state oil company Saudi Aramco has reported that profits rose by more than a third in the latest quarter despite attacks on its facilities. The world’s top oil exporter posted a net profit of $3.25bn in the three months to September, compared with $26.9bn a year earlier. The US-Israeli war on Iran has reduced Aramco’s output, but this has been offset by higher oil prices. This morning, Brent crude climbed $2.38 a barrel to $107.15 a barrel, a 2.2% gain, after the ⁠US reportedly launched limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island late on Monday. (Before the war, which started on 28 February, Brent traded around $72 a barrel.) However on Monday, the global oil benchmark plunged 11% to $103.28 a barrel after Donald Trump reportedly said he was willing to give diplomacy more time. Amin H. Nasser, Aramco’s president and chief executive, said: Geopolitical uncertainty and attacks on key energy facilities continued to amplify the global energy supply crisis in the third quarter of 2026, with serious implications for global energy security. Despite challenges, the unwavering dedication of our workforce, our operational excellence, the flexibility of our system, and the strength of a supply network built over decades enabled us to continue delivering reliably to our customers through this extraordinary period. We continue to explore additional overseas storage capacity and alternative export routes to further strengthen our global supply network, and our robust operational and financial performance during this volatile period demonstrates the value of our resilience. This means that the world’s biggest oil companies are on track for combined profits of around $100bn between July and September. Australia’s central bank has lifted interest rates for the fifth time this year, taking them to the highest level in 18 years. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s board raised its cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.85% and said it will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation to target. However, it dropped its previous guidance that it would raise the cash rate further if needed. And a surprisingly narrow 6-3 vote indicated policymakers may be getting to the end of their rate hikes. Michele Bullock, the governor, said it was “not the news that many Australians want to hear”, but it would prevent “even worse pain down the track”. She said it was unclear what the next move in rates will be, adding that the three dissenting members stressed downside risks such as the weakening housing market and rising unemployment. After five rate hikes this year, she said it is an appropriate time to pause and assess how the economy is responding to the rate rises, but cautioned that there is still a bit of a skew on the upside to inflation risks, and we need to be alert to those materialising. Updated forecasts from the central bank show headline inflation hitting 4.5% in the fourth quarter, before easing back to the target range of 2% to 3% in the second half of next year. Unemployment is forecast to rise above 5% in the next couple of years. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: Higher energy prices… would strengthen the case for further monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve (Fed) and other major central banks. The Reserve Bank of Australia delivered a 25bp hike today, as expected, while the Bank of England (BoE) is widely expected to announce a 25bp hike on Thursday, following a rather uneventful budget announcement last week that allows the BoE to go on with its life — and take care of its inflation problem. The Big Picture Overall, if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture, the latest monetary policy decisions have brought either rate hikes or the prospect of tighter monetary policy to fight inflation fuelled by elevated global energy prices. On top of that, many developed-market bond yields face upward pressure from intensifying fiscal concerns, while large bond issuance by technology companies to finance their massive AI buildout could add to that pressure. The cryptocurrency exchange Binance said hourly deposits exceeded withdrawals this morning, suggesting flows are stabilising after its hack last week. This resulted in $6.3bn of assets being stolen from customer accounts. It has been described as the biggest heist in history; experts identified North Korea as the probable culprit. The Agenda 3pm GMT: US JOLTs job openings for September 3pm GMT: US Factory orders for September