Starbucks UK has blamed high rents and a hefty royalty payment to its US parent for its fifth consecutive year of losses.

Ofcom puts cap on cost of stamps

Starbucks wants to label your coffee by name, in a bid to get friendly. It's all rather, well, American for Tim Walker, who foresees problems far worse than getting a decaf latte in error

The Independent on Sunday: Banks to get €500bn of cheap loans from ECB

The coffee giant Starbucks has revealed it will open its first franchise stores in the UK later this year, following one of its best December trading periods.

Starbucks has come under fire from its customers after changing the terms of its loyalty scheme.

Two of the high street's most embattled chains, JJB Sports and Clinton Cards, gave their battered shareholders cause for hope yesterday with an improvement in their trading over Christmas.

Darcy Willson-Rymer, the chief executive of embattled high street favourite Clinton Cards, is looking at revamping shop layouts and streamlining supply lines as part of his strategic review.

It is good news that the US coffee chain Starbucks is to create 5,000 jobs in Britain over the next five years, as part of expansion plans which include the creation of 200 drive-through coffee shops. Added to the chain's 700 existing high-street outlets, it will make the world's largest coffee-shop operator also the biggest in Britain. More significantly, since about 70 per cent of Starbucks' employees in the UK are under the age of 24, the move will create new jobs which will go predominantly to young people. With more than a million people between the ages of 18 and 24 now unemployed – the highest since records began 19 years ago – new jobs in a relevant sector are particularly welcome.

High street coffee shops could pose a risk to pregnant women due to large variations in caffeine content, according to research.

Starbucks expects to create 5,000 jobs over the next five years, driven by a rapid expansion of its drive-through formats.

Government cover-ups, faked dictator deaths, secret messages in the Wingdings font...Nick Harding reports on a mental contagion

US Outlook: The "data-driven evaluation" to which Hewlett-Packard has belatedly subjected the proposed spin-off of its personal computer business, probably did not need to go further than measuring the share-price decline on the day it was announced. It was 20 per cent.

Ronnie O'Sullivan has apologised for claiming he felt "raped" playing in the lower-profile Players Tour Championship (PTC) series.