Coronavirus Impact Assessment: 19 March
With schools now set to close at the end of the week, full lockdown in the UK could be fast approaching. But encouraging updates from China prove that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But companies have to get there first and we’re likely to see a huge amount of strain of cash reserves in the coming weeks and months as everyone remains at home. Here are today’s rolling updates.
Next: tough going but a potential winner?Next (LON: NXT) bosses have put the company through a comprehensive set of stress tests to discover which measures need to be taken in a worst case coronavirus scenario. The company has already seen its retail operations take a hit and is expecting online to struggle as well now that most of the UK is confined indoors, “People do not buy a new outfit to stay at home”. The company has forecast that the current worst case scenario would be a £1bn hit to annual turnover (25%). But it has also reassured that the…