Free Republic

Thorntons will permanently close all of its UK stores after more than a century of trading, the company has announced. The chocolate retailer will shut 61 stores, impacting 603 jobs, in the latest round of cuts to the high street amid the Covid-19 pandemic. After 110 years of creating chocolate, Thorntons said the ‘obstacles’ Covid-19 has brought on the high street are ‘too severe’ to survive. However, the retailer said it has seen sales surge online and will now invest in its grocery supply business as part of the company-wide shake-up. Retail director, Adam Goddard, said in a statement: ‘Changing...

Italian chocolate tycoon Pietro Ferrero, the joint chief executive of the group that owns Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, has died in a cycling accident in South Africa, a company spokesman said.Mr Ferrero, who was 47, fell from his bicycle during a regular riding session, probably because he was taken ill, while on a business trip in South Africa, the spokesman said, voicing the group's "deep dismay". Ferrero had co-run the sweets company with his younger brother Giovanni since 1997. Their 85-year-old father Michele, who turned the firm into a global leader of the confectionery industry after taking over in 1957,...