Bloc Blinds News Today

Pre-tax profits at Mid-Ulster manufacturer Bloc Blinds plummeted from £27.4m to £225,300 after soaring consumer demand and a pandemic boost both wore off, accounts have shown.

Healthcare organisations representing nurses and doctors want the same quality of PPE used in the US to protect them from Covid variants in hospital.

Huhtamaki Foodservice Delta had pre-tax profits of £3.5m for 2019, down from £4m. However, turnover went up 13% from £55m to £62.3m, the accounts show, with staff numbers also up 20% to 428. The business, based at Kennedy Way Industrial Estate, also makes packaging for other fast-food firms like KFC and Nandos, as well as food companies like Kelloggs. Delta Print was set up by businessman Terry Cross in 1981. It was sold to Finnish firm Huhtamaki in 2016, and is now led by Huhtamaki Foodser...

Our economy and businesses have had an extremely rough ride since the first Covid-19 case was detected here on February 27 last year. None of us could have imagined how our lives as individuals, consumers, employees and businesspeople would be affected. And almost every single trend which has reshaped our lives in the past year - working from home, streaming movies instead of going to the cinema, being furloughed, doing more online shopping because so many shops are shut - is feeding into the l...

Step onto the floor of the vast open plan office that acts as the headquarters of Grant Thornton in Northern Ireland and it is immediately apparent this is a business advisory firm where things are ‘different’. The firm’s values adorn the walls of the modern and exceptionally well-appointed space at the landmark Belfast DSW (Donegall Square West) office building. Written in huge, oversized lettering, it’s not a gimmick, rather a reflection of a deeply embedded culture that permeates eve...

Business has faced its most difficult year, with tough decisions and nimble action required to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus, and lockdowns to manage it, have shrunk our economy by 11%, and recovery will be gradual at best. By the end of February, Hamilton Shipping in Belfast was reporting a slowdown in its deliveries of Chinese-made goods like curtains and sofas as a result of shutdowns in China, where the virus originated. From March to December, businesses here faced lockdowns b...