Wednesday newspaper round-up: Waitrose, McDonald's, Crown Agents

(Sharecast News) - Waitrose is planning to open 100 convenience stores over the next five years as part of a £1bn-plus investment in new outlets and shop refurbishments. The upmarket grocery chain is planning to unveil a revamped outlet in Finchley Road, north London, on Wednesday. This will kick off a new phase of expansion with its first new store in six years in Hampton Hill, west London, by the end of this year. - Guardian Two former bosses of the collapsed department store chain BHS have been ordered to pay £110m to creditors in relation to breaching their corporate duties. The ruling against Dominic Chappell, the former chief executive of BHS whose Retail Acquisitions team bought the chain for £1 from Philip Green in 2015, and his former colleague Lennart Henningson comes eight years after the retailer collapsed into administration owing creditors, including its pension fund, more than £1bn. - Guardian

Union chiefs who have called three months of rail strikes on London North Eastern Railway (LNER) are lobbying to have Royal Mail train drivers they also represent hired on the East Coast main line. Train drivers' union Aslef said LNER could make strides toward avoiding industrial action by hiring experienced crews, including those currently being let go by Royal Mail. - Telegraph

McDonald's plans to create 24,000 jobs in the UK and the Republic of Ireland over the next four years as it opens more than 200 restaurants in a sign of faith in the high street. The expansion, its biggest since 2002, is part of a £1 billion investment by the chain and its franchisees, which already have 1,435 outlets in the UK employing 171,415 people. Four fifths of its restaurants are owned and operated by franchisees. - The Times

The 191-year-old Crown Agents survived existential crises, including the demise of the British empire and one of the biggest financial scandals of the 1970s, but cuts in government funding and the strains of a pension liability mean that it will not reach its 200th anniversary. The not-for-profit organisation, founded in 1833 to conduct financial transactions with British colonies, was placed into liquidation this month. Directors of Crown Agents, which had become an international development agency, filed a winding-up petition after concluding that they would not be able to attract the funding required to keep it trading. Its 150 staff have been made redundant. - The Times