{"id":193697,"date":"2025-09-25T07:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T06:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/?p=193697"},"modified":"2025-09-25T07:03:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T06:03:00","slug":"ao-boss-recession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/09\/ao-boss-recession\/","title":{"rendered":"AO boss warns UK is heading for recession"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AO World founder and CEO John Roberts has warned that Britain is heading for a recession, amid rising inflation and the Government&#8217;s workers\u2019 rights bill.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the BBC, Roberts said: &#8220;<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve lived through a few recessions in the last 25 years, and I think we\u2019re heading into another one.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have inflation coming through and we are now feeling that in the costs across businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Business leaders that I speak to are looking at how they can take people out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n\n\t\t<div class=\"rght-related-articles-middle rght-latest-articles mb-4 mt-3\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h5>Related Story<\/h5>\n\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"rght-middle-related-article-list\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"rght-middle-related-article-box\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rght-middle-related-article-img\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/05\/chanel-launches-official-beauty-flagship-on-jd-com\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shutterstock_1359214340.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Chanel flagship store covid-19 acquisition\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shutterstock_1359214340.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shutterstock_1359214340-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shutterstock_1359214340-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shutterstock_1359214340-630x420.jpg 630w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rght-middle-related-article-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/05\/chanel-launches-official-beauty-flagship-on-jd-com\/\" class=\"rght-articles-content-link\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3>CHANEL launches official beauty flagship on JD.com<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rght-articles-author-date\"><i class=\"far fa-calendar-alt\"><\/i><span>14\/05\/2026 x 6:00 AM<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n<hr \/>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ao.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">electricals giant<\/a> exec continued: &#8220;Costs walk into businesses on legs, those legs have got much more expensive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is much more difficult to recruit people, it\u2019s much less flexible than it has ever been to recruit people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His comments come as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/09\/consumer-confidence-brc\/\">consumer confidence slumped<\/a> in September, amid fears over the state of the UK economy and the potential of higher taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Expectations for the state of the overall economy dropped from -32 in August to -36 in September, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Asda&#8217;s income tracker also revealed that disposable income declined for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/09\/asda-income-tracker-budgets\/\">60% of UK households<\/a> in August.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/newsletter-sign-up-retail-gazette?utm_source=Website&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=SignUp\">Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette\u2018s free daily email newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AO World founder and CEO John Roberts has warned that Britain is heading for a recession, amid rising inflation and the government&#8217;s\u00a0workers\u2019 rights bill.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt 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