Plus hotels in china. And how the growing popularity of almond and soy lattes hitting the dairy industry we have a special report and feeling the grind well be getting the inside track on a coffe chain that wants to offer consumers a whole latte love. As the boss of amazon pledges 10bn of his own fortune to tackle Climate Change we want to know if firms green credentials affect where you shop. Let us know just use the hashtag bbcworklife. Hello and welcome to worklife. Europes biggest bank hsbc is to cut around 35,000 jobs after a sharp fall in profits. Its announced a major restructuring to save four and a half billion dollars by 2022. The Bank Reported an annual pre tax profit of 13. 35bn which sounds impressive but is actually down by a third on the previous year. Its unclear how many of the job losses will be made in the banks uk division where over 40,000 people are currently employed. 0ur Asia Business reporter monica millerjoins me now to discuss this whats going on, how are they going to achieve this . Its been a very bad yearfor them, this is the biggest restructuring they have taken on since 2008, the third time theyve done Something Like this in theyve done Something Like this in the past decade. So what they are saying is theyre going to have to find a way to cut four and a half billion dollars by 2022 and some of that will come with the job losses you just mentioned. We were just listening to the Conference Call and the chief Financial Officer as saying its unclear where exactly these job cuts are coming from but they could see meaningfuljob cuts right here in the uk. Hsbc has been dealing with all sorts of headwinds. Its Traditional Home is hong kong and we know about the protests going on there. But also, its got an interim chief executive right now, so interim chief executive right now, so much change going on within the organisation and yet they have to restructure radically. 2020 is not looking particularly bright at the moment. As you said they were dealing in 2019 with the pro democracy protests that were taking place. That closed down dozens taking place. That closed down d oze ns of taking place. That closed down dozens of the Retail Stores and stopped business for them. But also, we are faced with the coronavirus, its having an impact and is expected to have a big impact, especially in hong kong, on their businesses. So they are going to have to do some real tight strapping, make some difficult decisions, moving ahead. Whats happening with hsbc, do you expect other banks in the region around the world, similar kind of factors playing in . It could be a bit of a ca nary playing in . It could be a bit of a canary in the coal mine as we look at this. It is a bit unique in that most of the business actually, 90 of it comes out of asia and when you look at hong kong, that has been a bit of a unique situation because of the protests. But we shall see exactly how it will have an impact on asian banks in general. 0verall, lots of people saying its too soon to tell as the economic climate, the economy is already starting to slow down but then you tack on this virus, its a bit hard to say but its not particularly positive news. Monica, thank you. Just to say, looking at hsp share price, down over 4 , 5 lower trading in london. Ihg, the owner of holiday inn, crowne plaza and Intercontinental Hotel brands has unveiled its latest numbers, with revenues up by 8 in 2019. Investors will now be closely watching for the impact the coronavirus outbreak will have on the firm. The Intercontinental Hotels group has 443 hotels in china, hong kong, macau and taiwan with four in wuhan where the outbreak of the deadly virus started. Well a little earlier i spoke to keith barr, chief executive of the Intercontinental Hotels group and asked him if his hotels in wuhan are still open. You know what is amazing . Im so incredibly proud of our colleagues, they are sharing stories, hotels housing medical personnel who have flown in to help individuals affected by this virus in one of the hotels was making meals for workers building new hotels. 0ur hotels was making meals for workers building new hotels. Our team is theyre doing extraordinary things day in and day out. We focus on china first. Hong kong trading has been very challenging because of the u nsettled been very challenging because of the unsettled nature there and of course 110w unsettled nature there and of course now we have the virus in mainland china, principally. The experience of sars was a very sharp drop and then a very quick recovery because its an incredibly resilient economy. I lived there during the h1n1 and to see the strength and resilience, the ability of the government to stimulate demand, the real question will be this continuous work that will determine the impact and how quickly we can recover. China can recover faster than anywhere in the world. Globally, we see some small impact across asia pacific, nominal impact in europe, that will be small for us, no impact on the us overall but its a very resilient business model, incredibly resilient industry. Its been difficult, weve been there from the beginning, working with government to help accommodate, i cant comment on how theyve handled it because i dont have any more information than you but ive seen the government reach out to us across china to say how can we be part of the solution . I work with governments around the world as we always do. It will be a challenging time for china. I have many friends still living there and my heart is with them but im confident china will recover from the strongly and the long term Growth Prospects are quite strong. That was keith barr chief executive of the Intercontinental Hotels group talking through the results that have come out on the challenges they are facing. Apple has become the fist big company to warn about the effects of the coronavirus on its sales and revenue. Sarah toms is in Singapore Apple says supplies of iphones will be temporarily constrained . As you said, its becoming clearer iiow as you said, its becoming clearer now that companies and also economies are likely to be seriously affected by the coronavirus. Apple has been warning that this disruption in china will lead to a global shortage of its smartphones and affect its profits. The tech giant had forecast record revenues of up to 67 billion this quarter. Its not saying what it thinks its new assessment will be but analysts think the virus could slash demand for smartphones in china by half. Of course, china is the world s biggest market smartphones and much of apple production is based in china. Theyve been doubly stung. The Chinese Government is trying to contain the virus by temporarily shutting factories so theres been a slowdown in production. And demand for iphones has also been reduced because stores in china have also been closed or at least operating with reduced hours. And there are fewer customers on the streets as people just want to avoid any exposure to the coronavirus. There are hopes that factories and shops are hopes that factories and shops are getting back to normal but its just taken a much longer than was anticipated. Sarah, thank you. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news china says it would accept applications for new tariff exemptions for 696 products imported from the united states. It comes a month after the signing of a phase one trade deal between washington and beijing. China has committed to boosting its purchases of goods and services from the us by 200 billion over two years. French rail maker alstom has agreed to buy canadian bombardiers train unit in a deal worth up to 6. 7 billion. The move is an attempt by alstom to bulk up in the face of rising chinese competition and growing demand in europe. The group will become the worlds number two train manufacturer. Amazon bossjeff bezos has pledged 10billion to help fight Climate Change. The billionaire said the money would finance work by scientists, activists and other groups. Writing on his instagram account, mr bezos added the fund would begin distributing money this summer. Time now for our daily look at some of the newspaper and website stories which have caught our eye. Joining me is louise beaumont, executive chair of sig noy, a data Analytic Company well, thank you for coming in. We will we start . We start with the guardian. Youve been looking at this louise. Heathrow hotel block booked as coronavirus quarantine facility. Interesting, keith barr was saying that to us in wuhan, his hotels are being used by medical services to help the situation. The holiday inn is part of the Intercontinental Hotel group. Theyve been block booked in heathrow and what was interesting, what caught my eye, so much in the news recently about this, hundred thousand news articles over the last two weeks, 5 million tweets so what idid was two weeks, 5 million tweets so what i did was i looked at the conversational dna of this story and there were five key strands. What are people talking about, the sheer numbers of people affected, hundreds of millions of people locked down in china, the second theme is around a conspiracy theory, the soul originated according to the conspiracy theorists from our lab. Thirdly, the british tweets have a strong vein of humour in them, i hope we would expect that. Theres also the story of those people who have personally affected, not least david and sally abel who have just tested positive for the coronavirus. 0n the diamond princess, the cruise ship of japan. But 0n the diamond princess, the cruise ship ofjapan. But there is a small and genuine thread of real concern and genuine thread of real concern and this is where the heathrow holiday inn comes in. Closed to public bookings and being used as a coronavirus Quarantine Centre is just felt to be a bit too close for comfort. But people arent changing their behaviour yet. Certainly not here in the uk. But where they will start to do so is when they see this is becoming a risk to me personally. Thats when people started to change their behaviour. What do you mean by that . More cases nearby, people you know, things like that and then people start to sit up and take notice when its across the other side of the world . It feels a long way away but this is now a little bit too close to home so is it impacting trust in the brand of ihd or hotels is a concept . Not yet and probably not really. Because as long as people see precautions are being taken and things are being done sensibly, then brand protection is assured. Lets look at jeff bizos, his big move into helping with the climate crisis. Saying he is putting 10 billion of his own money into the pot to try and alleviate this problem or make things better. What do you make of this, is this greenwashing, what do you think . Some impressive pledges, net zero Carbon Emissions by 2040,100 Renewable Energy 2030. Is that at amazon . It is at amazon but its also a company with incredibly high carbon endeavours. Look at blue origin, space exploration, very high carbon. Just to be clear for the viewers, thats his mission into space. Space tourism. Living off planet as he describes it. Interestingly amazon s own employees have been pushing very ha rd employees have been pushing very hard on the company, theyve got their own Climate Change group inside amazon. The question is do they trust him to deliver . We ran 300,000 data points on what it does trust mean to people today . How do they experience it, what do they think it is . Ethics and the ethics of leadership comes across very strongly as one of those important drivers and trust. Theres about 12 and this is a key one so if this is authentic, if its genuine, if its real, it could really work for amazon as well as for the climate. The question is do people believe him and when we see those grant money is starting to roll out, when you see real impact happening, maybe this is more than expensive reputational elastoplast. Will people believe, we use amazon, that last Mile Delivery is still an old diesel truck, you are getting the parcel, there is a bit of a disconnect from what hes saying and what the Consumer Experiences that im afraid we have delivered there. Not to mention the packaging. Thank you so much. Are you feeling the ground . We speak to a coffee chain that wants to offer you a beautiful es p resso that wants to offer you a beautiful espresso experience. But is it all froth . For Property Developers, sustainability and the impact on the environment are now big issues in any project undertaken. However, one company felt those values should begin in the office. Igloo regeneration took the decision to become a Vegetarian Company it only caters with veggie food at work events and will only allow employees to expense meals that dont contain meat. Kate marfleet spearheaded the move how did this come about . Some are saying this is quite a radical move, you cant expect what i often go out for after my shift, english breakfast with bacon and sausages, i am english breakfast with bacon and sausages, iam not english breakfast with bacon and sausages, i am not able to expense at . No, we as a company took a democratic approach and we surveyed all our employees as we are a sustainable Property Developer so we wanted to make sure our external kind of values were reflected in internal policy so we asked our employees what they thought the most appropriate diet was on 75 of them believe a vegetarian diet was the way forward. If you want to have your bacon and sausage sandwich, thats absolutely fine, we just wont pay for it. Our oldest are really on board or are you are they telling you there on board. Its a self raising policy, everyone seems oii its a self raising policy, everyone seems on board. We believe in doing the right thing. Its a kind of a small positive change. What are you going to do next . We cant expense meet in our meals whats next on your menu . As part of our values team, we do lots of initiatives or our employees, simple things like reusable Water Bottles and coffee cups, weve also been looking at green home loans, you can borrow some money from english and retrofit your home to make sure its green. The vegetarian policy is a small pa rt of the vegetarian policy is a small part of the wider policy of trying to make sure we practice what we preach. Fantastic, very impressive, innovative and interesting idea, thank you very much for being with us thank you very much for being with us kate. Im sure thats going to divide viewers. It has and if you look at the website, you can see many opinions there, some critical, some very much many opinions there, some critical, some very much on many opinions there, some critical, some very much on board. More detail about hsbc, the job cuts that could come in the uk. Now lets talk about coffee. For most people its the fuel that keeps them going through the day i know it is for me. Getting up at this time in the morning but not Drinking Coffee thats why around two billion cups of the drink is consumed daily worldwide. In the uk alone, the number of coffee shops has increased from 10,000 in 2007 to more than 24,000 today. So, given all that competition, how can a new business thrive in this crowded market . Thats the question we will be putting to our next guest, david abra hamovitch. Two years ago, he started grind, a hybrid chain of coffee shops. What is a hybrid chain of coffee shops . We serve coffee during the day, cocktails at night and we serve all the way through, full food menu from breakfast, smashed avocado, burgers, things like that when starbucks, costa and others are short, youre still going . Absolutely, more of the revenue comes from alcohol now than anything else, to try and make it work survive, thats been a critical part of what weve done. Trying to make it work and survive, i want to ask, its such a competitive and crowded market. Everyone knows coffee shops opening up and turning up on every other shop in the high street. Whats it like from the inside trying to survive in that market . Its challenging for sure but i think anyone operating in the high street is finding it challenging at the moment, there is a lot of pressure but we focus, we are lucky, we are a young, cool, fast growing brand and customer really like that and they like being offered Something Different to the larger chains. But your expenses have gone up chains. But your expenses have gone up since we voted to leave the european union, partly because you are london based, there are staff issues. The pound has been really volatile. Affected what you pay for stuff, Business Rates dont help either. Yes. Ground is only based on expense of Central London premises which are only going one direction, five year upward only rent reviews, rates, challenges with staff, pressures and everything we buy. Talk us through the staff issues, youve lost people because theyve gone back to forever, if they were within the eu . And you are having to pay more for those youve got in terms of wages. Absolutely. Its definitely become harder and harder to recruit, we employ about 300 people and we are finding, retaining and recruiting those people is hard fewer people coming from places like australia and the us, which is to be big sources of really Skilled Labour for us. Europeans as well, just choosing not to come in quite the same volumes as they were before. Choosing not to come in quite the same volumes as they were beforem terms of expansion, just having a look, youre not so keen on expanding into rural other parts of the uk . Youre more likely to expand abroad, explain that. We are expanding into consumer products, we make a copy products and espresso pods which we sell on the website and we are looking to slowly roll out more stores, mainly into Key International cities rather than a National Roll out. International cities rather than a National Rollout. The reason why youve managed to survive as youve explained is because you are pretty much open throughout the day, people spend a lot when they are in your stores. A lot of that is an alcohol but for those very small independent little coffee shops, just doing tea and coffee and a piece of cake, they are not likely to survive, are they . We have a couple of grind to goat sites which are focused just on Takeaway Coffee and you have to put some serious volume through to make those work. If your customer is spending three, four or £5, even 1000 a day would some of our store is true but only the best, thats still quite hard to make the numbers work in Central London properties. There have to be really good location so thats why were moving into airports and train stations and travel locations. You started out with a tech company. Funded by venture capitalists when you are finishing your degree . And that failed but actually you started ground, talk us through your journey, what you learnt from the failure . Yes, i mean, that was a completely different thing and i started it with a friend in the third year of uni and then i got dragged into this for various other reasons but i fell in love with running this business. I think you learn people in the team or absolutely everything and you need to try and solve a need for the consumer and work really, really hard. David, thank you so much for coming in, i was going to say you have to try and persuade us both to drink coffee, but you dont have to do that, the cocktails are winning us over. Espresso martini, that will sort it out. I will give that a go definitely. In a moment, well run through some viewer responses to our twitter question. But first, lets turn to the us, where in the last few months, two of the countrys Largest Dairy producers filed for bankruptcy. And in the last decade, the number of Dairy Farmers in the us has dropped by 30 percent. There are a few factors contributing to the decline of americas dairy industry, one of which is what youre ordering at your local coffee shop. Samira hussain reports from new york. When i was a kid growing up, there was always a form. Flat white with oat milk. At the top of the show, we asked you if youre impressed by a companys green credentials and if that makes an impact on how you shop or do business. Lets take a look at how some viewers have responded its a difficult one, and moral test. Thats what we were talking about earlier, the disconnect with jeff bezel is giving away millions of pounds but peoplepos macro experience a slightly different, you see diesels fans, not paying tax concerns about amazon workers, how theyre treated in the uk, health and safety. Jerome says that is a really, really good point. Lack of information out there. The company will say we are doing this, that, this is the Environmental Impact but how do you know for sure and how do you test that . Good point. Excellent use of the phrase now on. I managed to get it right. Let me show you one more time, bbc online, ive been strolling through myself, the business page, so many really interesting features and analysis, look at this, pregnant actresses, we are not treated like people. And one for dog lovers, that in your pocket, take a look if you have time. Thats it from worklife today. Goodbye. Good morning. Flooding is still known to be a concern over the next few days. Nine severe flood warnings in force from the environment agency, that the scene in worcester at the moment. Many areas of concern include the West Midlands, south wales, these areas have severe flood warnings in force. Hereford, monmouth, burton on trent, upton upon severn. The flooding risks continue especially as we have more showers and areas of rain moving in from the west over the next few days. Thats the satellite imagery through this morning, speckled cloud indicative of the showers and they will be wintry over Higher Ground of scotland. I secure this morning as well. More significant band of rain spreading south and east as we go through tuesday. Moving to the south east, torrential rain for a time, some hail, thunder, sunny spells in between, maximum temperatures about 7 11d. That band of rain will clear away to the south east, clear skies tonight, further wintry showers in scotland, risk of ice again into tomorrow morning as temperatures fall away to about 1 3 possibly 4 degrees. During wednesday, fine start to the day, small ridge of High Pressure before this next weather system pushes its way in from the west. Bright start, plenty of sunshine, counting over all the while, with that rain moving its way through northern ireland, into western areas, patchy rain eventually moving its way into eastern parts by the afternoon but the rain could be quite heavy, especially later on around western areas, maximum temperatures 8 10d. There is some concern again parts of wales, the rain moving its way through, further rain into thursday, spreading in across those northern and western areas, the real risk of flooding once again as the rain, heavy rain at times, most of the West Midlands and south wales. Eventually the heavy rain spits into the south east and as it does so, sunny skies behind it, but turning chillier as the day goes on. Further wintry showers may be over the Higher Ground. Temperatures in the afternoon 5 8d. That band of rain clears away, as we go to the end of the week, look out towards the atlantic, this feed of air coming in from the atlantic, further weather systems a re from the atlantic, further weather systems are spreading their way in and that brings the risk again of heavy rain and strong winds. Youre watching bbc news at 9 with me, annita mcveigh. The headlines two british passengers aboard the diamond princess cruise ship in japan say theyve tested positive for coronavirus. Their son says the experience has been stressful. In the last two days, ive seen cracks in the armour. They are coming down. My mum. She breaks into tears frequently when we call her. My dads short tempered. The Uk Foreign Office say theyre working to fly the british citizens on board home. More than 200 flood warnings are in place across england, wales and scotland, including nine severe or danger to life warnings. And we speak to a family whose cafe only opened in november and has now been destroyed by storm dennis floods
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