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Seaweed and onion skins: British companies look to natural products to replace plastic

Feb 13, 2023
The British government has imposed a far-reaching ban on single-use plastics, creating opportunity for environmental entrepreneurs.
Examples of Notpla's biodegradable packaging — made from seaweed.
Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II dies amid uncertain times in the UK

Sep 8, 2022
"She died — although at the age of 96 — too soon," said Marketplace's Stephen Beard.
Queen Elizabeth at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London in 2012.
WPA Pool/Getty Images

Even a London honey stall is caught up in Britain's historically high inflation

Jul 5, 2022
"It's a bit like pushing a boulder up a hill," says London store owner Samantha Wallace.
Bees at an apiary in Italy. "We've actually just had to, for the first time, raise our Italian honey prices," said Samantha Wallace.
Macro Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images

Royal warrants give public a ticket to celebrate Platinum Jubilee like the queen

Jun 2, 2022
There are only 800 companies who have one, and it takes some effort to get it.
Royal warrants, like the one seen here on chocolates from Charbonnel et Walker, serve as a kind of rare royal seal  of approval for certain products or companies.
Victoria Craig / BBC

How is Britain's financial services industry faring after Brexit?

Jun 28, 2021
It’s an industry that, in 2019, contributed nearly $200 billion to the U.K.’s economy, and supported nearly a million jobs.
It's been six months since the end of a Brexit transition period for the U.K. How are financial companies moving forward?
Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

Having survived pandemic lockdown, a small British theater company takes a bow

May 28, 2021
Blackeyed Theatre, a touring group, on how the company weathered COVID-19 and the worst financial crisis in its history.
According to a recent study, 90% of U.K. actors are usually unemployed. The pandemic made matters worse.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

Direct-to-consumer models key to post-pandemic future for many British businesses

Apr 21, 2021
Across Europe, e-grocery is booming. Companies that successfully pivoted want to hold onto this new slice of business.
Smith and Brock quickly pivoted its wholesale produce business to supply individual consumers during the UK's first lockdown in 2020. Now, it's a booming part of the business and one the company is looking to expand further in 2021. (Photo by Mark Case/Getty Images)

For public good, not for profit.

What's in Britain's pandemic-adjusted inflation basket?

Apr 6, 2021
A year into the pandemic, statisticians are recalibrating the algorithms and metrics that measure how healthy our economies are.
Getty Images

"Looking after children during the pandemic is uplifting"

Jan 13, 2021
Roopam Carroll runs a day care center in Nottingham, England. She explains how caregivers enable other kinds of work.
Roopam Carroll runs a day care center in Nottingham, England.
Courtesy of Roopam Carroll

Will British enterprise be a casualty of COVID-19?

Jul 1, 2020
Some fear that Britain’s massive state intervention to combat the economic effects of the pandemic could stifle the country’s entrepreneurial spirit.
A worker fills a bread order at a bakery in Wales in June. British entrepreneurs are worried government intervention during the pandemic could dampen the country's innovative spirit.
Stu Forster/Getty Images