Business

BURGESS HILL, United Kingdom — A lone worker kneels among the vines at the Ridgeview winery in southern England, as a dozen or so visitors sample the estate's sparking wine.

Demand for British wine is up domestically but at the same time, Brexit has led to a shortage of seasonal workers, increased costs and red tape.

Across the country, similar problems have disrupted businesses since Britain fully left the European Union in January.

But it is not yet clear whether the issues are just teething troubles or more long-lasting.

Tamara Roberts, chief executive of the family run wine estate, said finding labour had never been a problem in the past.

"It's only really been this year we have seen real shortages," she said.

"It's really tricky with the pandemic and the travel restrictions to see where the pressure is coming from. 

"We think Brexit pushed people to stay home because we haven't made it easy for them to come."

The political and economic repercussions from Britain's vote five years ago to leave the European Union are far from over.

The British wine industry did not take a stand at the time but is now struggling with the consequences. 

"We have time to consider our options, work with agencies" to find around 20 seasonal workers, "but we don't have a solution", said Roberts.

"We're looking for a chef, we haven't been able to push our offer in that area as we would have hoped," she added.

"There is definitely a pressure to increase pay if we're all competing for the same people."

At the same time, "we've seen logistics costs tripling" because the red tape for exporting product and importing machines and bottles has become so complicated that Ridgeview now goes through middlemen, she added. 

"Whether it's Germany or France or Holland, the interpretation of rules are quite different so it's quite hard to navigate."

'Existential threat' 

For small businesses, costs are rising quickly and squeezing margins. 

"We'll probably have an idea by the end of the year of what's short-term, what's long-term," said Roberts.

On the up side, domestic demand has jumped given the difficulties of importing foreign wine, especially online.

"The hospitality industry hasn't fully reopened. We hope to see a recovery in that, we think that will happen before the recovery in exports," added Roberts.

She also noted that the impact of Brexit remains vague.

Much will depend on the bilateral trade agreements signed by Britain and other countries, such as those that have just been agreed with Norway or Australia, or the one under negotiation with the United States.

Further north, in Boston, which had the highest number of pro-Brexit votes in 2015, Ian Collinson's flower growing business has reported the same difficulties in finding seasonal workers for times of peak demand, such as Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. 

Brexit has been a positive in that "demand is high because of the extra friction on imports", he said.

But if the labour issue is not solved, it is "an existential threat to the industry in the UK", he added.

Collinson is considering scaling back production and ending it in certain varieties that require more manual labour, in favour of more mechanised blooms such as lilies.

No timber 

In London, Sanjay Nairi, complained that Brexit had compounded existing difficulties in sourcing materials for his construction company "Refurb-it-all" because of high demand.

"Cement, timber... materials that are coming across from the continent, these have got delay times, the supply chain is unreliable, materials prices are going up practically on a daily basis," he said. 

And he too is struggling with labour shortages. 

"I lost about seven guys," out of a staff of around 20, he said. 

Yet demand, particularly from individual homeowners who have saved money during the crisis and want to renovate their homes, is high. 

BRUSSELS — The EU launched a wide-ranging antitrust probe against Google on Tuesday over concerns that it is using its technology to keep out rivals in the lucrative online advertising market.

The case opens yet another front by the European Commission against the search engine giant, which has already received 8 billion euros ($9 billion) in fines for its anti-competitive practices.

The investigation will "assess whether Google has violated EU competition rules by favouring its own online display advertising technology services", a statement from the EU executive said.

The probe narrows in on an important component of Google's profit-making machine: More than 80 per cent of the giant's revenue in 2020 came from advertising, or $147 billion.

"We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete" in display ad technology, said EU Competition Chief Margrethe Vestager.

At issue is Google's largely unnoticed, but highly dominant technologies that serve as an intermediary or broker between advertisers and publishers online.

Google owned technologies include services such as AdX, Doubleclick or AdSense that power much of the EU's display advertising market for web pages and apps, which the commission estimated to be worth about 20 billion euros in 2019.

The business was at the heart of a recent case in France — brought by News Corp., French daily Le Figaro and Belgium's Groupe Rossel — that saw Google fined 220 million euros ($267 million).

It is also central to blockbuster cases in the US where state prosecutors accuse the company of rigging the ad-tech market and snuffing out rivals.

As in the other cases, the EU will try to determine whether Google gave preferential treatment to its own ad inventory technologies AdX and Doubleclick, but will also look at other aspects of the ad-tech business.

Crucially, the probe will look into Google's announced plans to prohibit the placement of third party "cookies" on its Chrome browser, a move that has angered some publishers and advertisers.

Critics fear that the project — known as the "Privacy Sandbox" — will only increase Google's dominance since the giant holds mountains of data on consumer behaviour that will be denied to others.

The probe will also look into ads on Youtube, Google's video platform, and whether advertisers there are forced to channel their business through Google's ad technology.

'Benefits' 

A Google spokesperson said the company "will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission to answer their questions and demonstrate the benefits of our products to European businesses and consumers".

The in-depth look into Google's online ad-tech is not unexpected as it follows a broader inquest launched in 2019.

The investigation comes as the EU is preparing new laws to better oversee tech giants by giving them special "gatekeeper" rules that would more tightly regulate how they can operate, but those will not be implemented for years.

There is no time limit on the investigation, which could lead to formal accusations, fines or an order that Google change its market behaviour.

STOCKHOLM — Volvo and Sweden's Northvolt have joined forces to build a new battery factory in Europe as the automaker aims to sell only fully electric cars by 2030, the companies said on Monday.

Swedish automaker Volvo and the battery start-up said that, through a joint venture, they will build a gigafactory with a potential capacity of 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year, with production expected to start in 2026.

This would allow Volvo, which is owned by Chinese automaker Geely, to equip around 800,000 vehicles per year.

Europe has been ramping up efforts to become more autonomous in the battery sector, as it is still very dependent on production from Asia.

Europe has projects to build nearly 40 gigafactories with a combined annual output of 1,000GWh and an estimated cost of 40 billion euros ($48 billion), according to a report by Transport & Environment, a non-government organisation.

Volvo and Northvolt also plan to open a research and development centre in Sweden next year that will develop "next-generation, state-of-the-art battery cells and vehicle integration technologies", according to their joint statement.

"Batteries are one of the most important parts in a fully electric car, and by partnering with Northvolt we ensure an efficient and cost-effective supply chain of high-quality and sustainable batteries," said Javier Varela, Volvo's director of industrial operations.

Volvo is to buy 

15 GWh of battery cells per year from Northvolt's Swedish plant in Skelleftea from 2024.

The partnership will contribute to Volvo's effort to make half of its cars fully electric by mid-decade and all of them 100 per cent electric by 2030.

The deal has yet to be signed and approved by the boards of Volvo and Northvolt.

Northvolt, which wants to become Europe's largest producer of electric car batteries, has also set up partnerships with Volkswagen, BMW and Scania.

Northvolt chief executive Peter Carlsson told the FT his company was now looking at "specifically the US, possibly also Asia" for expansion after previously saying the battery maker had more than enough to do in Europe.

JAKARTA — Indonesia's stock exchange halted trading in flagship carrier Garuda's shares on Friday after it missed a key bond payment, fanning fears that the virus-hit airline was headed for bankruptcy.

The Jakarta-based bourse cited Garuda's default on a $500 million Islamic bond, known as sukuk, for suspending share trading "until further notice".

"[The missed payment] indicates that there are problems in the company's business continuity," the Indonesia Stock Exchange said in a statement Friday.

On Thursday, Garuda closed at 222 rupiah (0.01 cents), down by about half since the start of the year.

Garuda Chief Executive Irfan Setiaputra said late Thursday the missed bond payment was a "difficult and inevitable measure that the corporation must take amid efforts to improve its performance".

The debt-swamped airline had hired an outside financial advisor to get its books in order, he added.

Garuda's chief warned last month that the airline may halve its fleet to survive.

The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the global aviation sector, sparking heavy losses, job cuts, bankruptcies and state rescue plans.

State-controlled Garuda has been posting mounting losses as it grounded dozens of its 142 jets due to travel restrictions and slumping demand. 

It received a government rescue package last year and has been offering early retirement to its employees as it scrambles to restructure.

The airline posted a loss of more than $1 billion in the nine months to September. It has yet to report its full-year financial results for 2020.

SAN FRANCISCO — Waymo on Wednesday said it has raised $2.5 billion from parent-company Alphabet and others in a new funding round to fuel its mission of getting self-driving cars on the road.

The infusion of cash comes just months after the departure of Waymo chief John Krafcik prompted concerns that the unit might be stuck in low gear despite boasts of gaining traction.

Waymo is among several automotive and tech firms testing autonomous driving, although no large-scale deployments have begun.

The latest funding will be used to improve Waymo autonomous driving technology and build the company's team, according to co-chiefs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov

"We agree with those experts who say there's no greater challenge in artificial intelligence than building and deploying fully autonomous technology at scale," Dolgov and Mawakana said in a release.

"We're grateful to our investors for believing in this mission, in our technology, and in us."

Investors taking part in the latest funding round included Alphabet and venture capital titan Andreessen Horowitz, according to Waymo.

Waymo earlier this year began testing its driverless ride-hailing service on the streets of San Francisco with employees as riders.

The move expanded on "robo-taxi" testing be done by Waymo in the Phoenix, Arizona area in recent years.

"We're the first and only company operating a fully autonomous, public, commercial ride-hailing service — Waymo One — and have served thousands of riders in Metro Phoenix," Dolgov and Mawakana said.

Waymo is also working with Daimler Trucks and others to put self-driving technology to work moving commercial goods, according to the co-chiefs.

Waymo last year raised some $3 billion from investors and has yet to turn a profit.

NEW YORK — Wall Street stocks hovered near the flat-line early Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve's latest policy statement and the unexpected rise in jobless claims last week.

The Fed on Wednesday maintained highly accommodative monetary policy as expected, but several policymakers projected interest rate hikes as soon as 2022 and a majority of central bank officials now believe interest rates will increase in 2023, rather than 2024.

Meanwhile, after six weeks of declines, new US jobless claims rose to 412,000, seasonally adjusted, in the week ended June 12, which was 37,000 more than the previous week, the Labour Department said.

About 30 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 per cent at 33,926.90.

The broad-based S&P 500 was essentially flat at 4,222.49, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.3 per cent to 14,084.23.

Analysts described the Fed's overall message as modestly more hawkish than expected, even as Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that the central bank still sees the current inflation spike as a short-term challenge.

But Powell also stressed the Fed will be willing to act if needed to contain inflation, though policymakers are not looking at an interest rate hike as the first step.

"The countdown to 'liftoff' has started, even if it is some ways off," said a note from DataTrek Research.

"Earnings growth should buffer stock prices against that issue; we still believe the Street's estimates are too low. But make no mistake: the Fed put rate policy back on the market's front burner today."

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Wednesday named chief executive Satya Nadella as chair of its board, strengthening his grip on a pioneering US technology company he rejuvenated for a new age.

Nadella was unanimously elected head of the Microsoft board of directors, where he will guide the agenda "leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks," the company said in a post.

Nadella, who took over from Steve Ballmer in February 2014, made Microsoft more relevant in a new tech world led by mobile-focused rivals such as Apple and Google.

When Nadella took the reins as chief of Microsoft, some feared the technology giant was becoming a dinosaur.

Nadella is credited with bringing new energy to the company, founded in 1975, and long focused on packaged software for personal computers.

Early in his tenure, Nadella ordered a massive reorganisation, cutting some 18,000 jobs -- or 14 per cent of the workforce -- under a plan aimed at simplifying the corporate structure and integrating the mobile division of Finland's Nokia.

Nadella, 53, made a priority of cloud computing, which has become a lucrative growth engine at the tech giant based in the Washington state city of Redmond.

Microsoft next week is to unveil a new generation of its Windows operating system, which market trackers say powers nearly three-quarters of the world's desktop computers.

Microsoft built its empire on software such as Windows and Office -- licensed to computer makers or sold in packages for installation on machines in homes or workplaces.

Under Nadella, Microsoft has put more focus on renting software and services hosted at datacenters in the computing cloud, bulking up its Azure platform.

The era of the personal computer was rocked by the rise of smartphones and tablets, but saw a revival of sorts during the pandemic as people geared up homes for remote work, school and play.

Microsoft's board on Wednesday also announced a quarterly dividend of 56 cents per share, which will be paid out in September.