{"id":52862,"date":"2025-09-08T19:38:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/corporate-shifts-and-trade-winds-anz-workforce-reduction-pret-a-manger-losses-and-us-japan-tariff-cuts\/52862\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T19:38:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:38:26","slug":"corporate-shifts-and-trade-winds-anz-workforce-reduction-pret-a-manger-losses-and-us-japan-tariff-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/corporate-shifts-and-trade-winds-anz-workforce-reduction-pret-a-manger-losses-and-us-japan-tariff-cuts\/52862\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporate Shifts and Trade Winds: ANZ Workforce Reduction, Pret A Manger Losses, and US-Japan Tariff Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pret A Manger<\/strong> reported a significant <strong>\u00a3451.5 million operating loss<\/strong> in 2024, stemming from a <strong>\u00a3553 million impairment<\/strong> that wrote down a third of its value from the 2018 JAB takeover, despite global sales increasing <strong>10% to \u00a31.2 billion<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>ANZ Group (<a href=\"\/stock\/ANZ\">ANZ<\/a>)<\/strong> anticipates a substantial workforce reduction, with approximately <strong>3,500 employees<\/strong> expected to leave the bank by September 2026.<\/li>\n<li><strong>US tariffs on Japanese goods, including automobiles<\/strong>, are set to be lowered by September 16, according to Japan\u2019s Akazawa, following a trade agreement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>UK retail sales<\/strong> showed stronger-than-expected growth in August, with BRC like-for-like sales rising <strong>2.9% year-over-year<\/strong>, surpassing the estimated 2.0% and the previous month&#39;s 1.8% growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ANZ Group (<a href=\"\/stock\/ANZ\">ANZ<\/a>) has announced plans for a significant reduction in its workforce, expecting around <strong>3,500 employees<\/strong> to depart the bank by September 2026. This development was highlighted in Bloomberg&#39;s Australia Briefing. The move signals potential restructuring within the banking giant.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the British sandwich chain <strong>Pret A Manger<\/strong> experienced a challenging 2024, swinging to a substantial <strong>operating loss of \u00a3451.5 million<\/strong>. This loss was primarily driven by a <strong>\u00a3553 million impairment charge<\/strong>, which effectively wrote down a third of the company&#39;s value since its 2018 acquisition by JAB Holding. <em>Tough trading conditions and higher costs<\/em> were cited as contributing factors to the impairment. Despite these financial setbacks, Pret A Manger reported a <strong>10% increase in sales, reaching \u00a31.2 billion<\/strong>, and its chairman hinted at a potential <strong>Initial Public Offering (IPO)<\/strong> as the company focuses on UK growth and US expansion.<\/p>\n<p>In international trade news, Japan&#39;s Akazawa confirmed that <strong>US tariffs on Japanese goods, including cars<\/strong>, are scheduled to be cut by September 16. This reduction follows a bilateral trade agreement between the two nations.<\/p>\n<p>On the economic front, the UK retail sector demonstrated resilience in August. British Retail Consortium (BRC) like-for-like sales saw a <strong>2.9% year-over-year increase<\/strong>, outperforming the estimated 2.0% growth and the 1.8% recorded in the previous month. This <em>stronger-than-expected performance<\/em> suggests a positive trend in consumer spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Pret A Manger reported a significant \u00a3451.5 million operating loss in 2024, stemming from a \u00a3553 million impairment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[9730,4147,10332,4179,10333,4930,5126,5127,5261,5369,5423,5453],"class_list":["post-52862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-anz","tag-ipo","tag-workforce","tag-tariffs","tag-pret-a-manger","tag-banking","tag-australia","tag-japan","tag-us-trade","tag-brc","tag-uk-economy","tag-retail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}