BrewDog, the Scottish craft beer brewer, has said it will survive the pandemic but has lost four per cent of its staff in voluntary redundancy.

James Watt, BrewDog co-founder, said in a letter to staff: "The last few months have contained the highest highs and the lowest lows.

"I am delighted that it looks like we will survive as a business yet I am heartbroken that we were not able to protect 100% of the jobs that we have created within BrewDog from the ground up.

"Yesterday we said goodbye to just over 4% of our team via a voluntary redundancy process. This is a difficult day in our history, and our collective heart goes out to the brilliant colleagues who are leaving us. To those who are leaving, I am really sorry. Please know this is not your fault."

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He also wrote: "We worked hard to be able to offer an enhanced package to those who will be leaving at this challenging time to account for the exceptional circumstances we are all facing. Martin [Dickie] & myself are forgoing all salary for 2020 and David [McDowall], our COO, has taken a voluntary 50% pay cut.

"The enhanced package we offered to those who had to very sadly leave the business, came directly from these funds.

"Regarding our survival; we needed a miracle and against all the odds our brilliant teams delivered one. We owe each other, and especially those leaving, a debt of gratitude. Their selfless act has allowed us to better safeguard the livelihoods of over 1,800 team members."

The company also that so far it has made and donated over 500,000 bottles of hand sanitiser to the NHS, health care charities and other key workers.

It has also announced it is to power all its UK pubs with electricity from wind turbines.

The brewing giant is also using wind turbines to power its Ellon site from next week as part of the wider green push.

It has signed a contract with an as yet un-named provider. 

James Watt, BrewDog co-founder, said: "We don’t just want to scramble back to business as usual. We want to change everything.

"This week we agreed a deal for all the electricity for every UK BrewDog Bar to come from wind turbines."

Ladbrokes owner GVC Holdings has welcomed a report from the House of Lords Gambling Industry Committee and supported calls for a review into the UK's gambling act.

Shares in the company moved higher after the gambling giant described the report as a "thoughtful and measured contribution" to the debate on how the regulated gambling industry can thrive.

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The report made a number of recommendations such as the reinstatement of triennial reviews of maximum stake and prize limits for offline gambling and, for online gambling, the creation of a system to test games to determine addictiveness and whether they would appeal to children.

Shares moved 4.4% to 781.4p

Air carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air both revealed flight numbers were still heavily down on normal traffic levels over the past month.

Ryanair told investors on Thursday that passenger numbers were down 97% against the same month last year after 400,000 used its services in June.

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Meanwhile, Wizz Air said passenger numbers slid by 86% to 502,253 for the month, after reopening greater capacity than its rival.

Wizz also announced that it will open three new bases, in Bacau, Romania, in Dortmund, Germany, and in St Petersburg, Russia, while it is also launching 64 new routes across Europe.