Will Hean, director of property developer Osborne + Co, reckons the commercial property market will bounce back after lockdown, the landmark Met Tower developer tells Scott Wright in this week’s Monday Interview.
Mr Hean, whose career has included spells with Robertson Group and Kenmore Property Group in the Middle East, says “what is really going to be emphasised is quality of environment."
In Guy Stenhouse’s Business Voices column this week the question is about the two-metre rule.
He says the Scottish and UK governments have done a decent job in dealing with the battle against the coronavirus, but it is now time to reprioritise the economy.
In Mark Williamson’s SME Focus this week, Stuart Clark, managing director with accountants Russell & Russell, also outlines the changing futures of many businesses post-Covid-19.
He says: “We have seen some clients that have had to shut completely, but we’ve seen others pivot and create other opportunities”.
The full articles will be running in Monday's print and online editions.
Also this week, shareholders will be looking for more clarity on how Royal Mail has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, as stay-at-home shoppers ordered many more parcels.
They will also hope for signs that the company's new bosses have managed to smooth over tense relations with the company's union leaders.
So far the pandemic has not been kind to Britain's mailmen and women, as the company was unable to take advantage of a massive spike in parcels being sent through the post.
In April Royal Mail's frontline workers braved the pandemic to deliver 36 million more parcels.
But social distancing ate through the benefit that Royal Mail as costs rose by £40 million.
Worried investors have seen the company's value fall to below what it was privatised seven years ago.
"At least the debate over who got short-changed and by how much when Royal Mail was floated by the Cameron-Osborne administration in autumn 2013 is over - in the end it was taxpayers who got the better end of the sale at 330p a share and investors and employees who got the worst of it," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
"The shares trade at barely half their listing price and the dividend has been cut after the company scrapped the second-half payment back in March, alongside the latest in a string of profit warnings."
Shareholders will therefore be praying that former British Airways chief Keith Williams can mastermind a turnaround.
The first step for the chairman, and his chief executive Stuart Simpson could be to sit down with union leaders to thrash out an agreement to avoid a major walkout.
Mr Wiliams and Mr Simpson will be overseeing their first set of results for the company, after taking over from Rico Back, a bogeyman for the unions.
"The CEO departure gives the opportunity to reset the union relationship," said Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo.
But, he warned, the process of changing Royal Mail is "easier said than done".
"This must still be translated into support for restructuring that goes further and faster than before, which must then be implemented successfully."
Union members voted to walk out in March, but decided to delay their strike to help out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Union of Communication Workers called for "a total change in strategy and direction" after Mr Back's departure and opened the door to cooperation with the new executives.
"It is absolutely critical that the new CEO wants to work with the CWU to overcome the challenges we all face and deliver the postal service the public and our members deserve."
On Tuesday Naked Wines and Cranswick finals are due and at 3pm the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee will review "Covid-19 and food supply", with Kate Nicholls, chief executive, UK Hospitality and Andrew Kenny, UK managing director, Just Eat Takeaway.com expected to speak.
Premier Foods finals are due on Wednesday with Dixons Carphone, Auto Trader, and Fuller's due on Thursday.
Marstons' interims are due on Friday along with a trading updates from Tesco.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article