Business
Growth slows to 0.3% in second quarter but beats forecasts
BBC business reporter
Getty ImagesUK economic growth slowed between April and June, according to official figures, but came in better than expected.
The economy expanded by 0.3%, down from 0.7% in the first three months of the year, the Office for National Statistics said.
The biggest contribution came from services while the construction industry also grew.
The government has made boosting economic growth a key priority and the latest data beat forecasts of 0.1% expansion, which would have been near stagnation.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the figures “beat expectations” but added there was “still more to do” so people in all parts of the country benefit from growth.
The economy performed better than expected in June, and the ONS also revised up figures for April – instead of shrinking by 0.3%, it now said the economy contracted by 0.1%.
Experts suggested that hot, dry weather helped lift activity in the construction industry, which expanded by 1.2% in the three months to June.
In the services sector, computer programming including consultancy, software installation and disaster recovery helped push up growth.
Vehicle rentals and health services such as doctors’ surgeries, hospitals and nursing homes also boosted the economy.
Retailing dragged on growth over the period but picked up towards the end.
Compared with other members of the G7 – the world’s richest nations – the UK economy grew the fastest in the first three months of the year, but not the second.
However, taken together, the UK may have had the fastest growth in the first half of 2025.
The resilience of the UK economy may prompt the Bank of England to be more reluctant about cutting interest rates, said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.
She said policymakers may choose to hold off until inflation begins heading back to the Bank of England’s 2% target.
Last week, the Bank raised its inflation forecasts and now expects the pace of price rises to peak at 4% later this year before receding to the target in 2027.
But Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said it was doubtful the country “will maintain this pace of growth” between July and September.
“The weak global economy will remain a drag on UK growth for a while yet,” she said.
“The full drag on business investment from April’s tax rises has yet to be felt. And the ongoing speculation about further tax rises in the Autumn Budget will probably keep consumers in a cautious mood.”
Earlier this month, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research think tank said taxes would have to rise in the autumn if Reeves wants to meet her self-imposed borrowing rules and avoid missing a target the government has set itself by £41.2bn.
Figures from the ONS showed that business investment fell sharply, down 4%, compared with growth of 3.9% in the first three months of the year. Household spending also dipped.
‘Unexpected sunshine’
Iain Hoskins, who owns several venues in Liverpool, said he was “very worried” after the last Budget, with increased National Insurance Contributions adding £100,000 to his costs.
However, he said he was “feeling more positive than we have done for the last few years,” thanks largely to better weather and consumer confidence.
“The quarter that we are talking about, we had a very early summer and often that period can be a complete washout,” he said. “Unexpected sunshine really did bring people out in force.
“Interest rates going down has really helped: more money in peoples’ pockets. That is fundamental.”
The Bank of England has cut interest rates five times over the past 12 months, taking borrowing to 4%.
Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, lifted its forecast for UK annual growth from 1.2% to 1.4%.
The chancellor said the economy “has been stuck for too long”.
“We are trying to get it out of the rut of the last few years with anaemic growth, poor productivity and living standards going backwards,” she said.
However, Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride accused her of “economic vandalism” while Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: “Snails would scoff at the pace that our economy is growing.
“The Conservative Party led us into this economic quagmire but this Labour government has failed to break from the years of mismanagement.”
Trump trade
James Smith, an economist at ING Bank, told the BBC’s Today programme that the figure for the April-to-June period was “not bad”.
In the first three months of the year, economic growth was “boosted by firms trying to get ahead of Donald Trump’s tariffs”, he said, as well as homebuyers rushing to complete before a change in stamp duty thresholds in April.
“Those factors were always going to be a drag, so the fact that we’ve ended up with 0.3% growth in an environment of global uncertainty isn’t really a bad result,” he said.
Separate trade figures on Thursday showed British goods exports to the US dropped to their lowest level in more than three years in June due to Trump’s tariffs.
A London-based AI-native restaurant management system for hospitality businesses has raised £27 million in Series B funding, bringing total funding to £46m.
Kinnevik led the investment round for Nory, which has experienced a period of rapid growth amid the company doubling down on building AI assistants and global expansion.
The news comes just one year after the firm’s Series A, led by Accel, who also participated in this round alongside existing investors.
The business looks to help restaurants take control of their operations and profits through a comprehensive AI system covering business intelligence, inventory, workforce management and payroll.
Created by industry-insider and now-CEO Conor Sheridan, Nory is purpose-built to meet the evolving needs of the hospitality industry.
By using the platform, restaurants have been able to reduce operating costs by nearly 20% and increase core net profits by up to 50%, according to the firm.
It helps restaurant operators save over 100 hours of admin per restaurant each month by automating time-consuming back office tasks such as business analysis, digital guest engagement, rota planning, procurement, and finance.
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Working with customers ranging from independent brands to enterprise groups across the UK, Ireland and US, it has onboarded clients including Black Sheep Coffee, Jamie Oliver Group and Dave’s Hot Chicken.
The company says that the funding will fuel AI enhancements to its platform, facilitate the strategic hiring of world class data scientists, continue development of proprietary algorithms and deploy autonomous AI assistants.
It will also drive its US expansion.
“At a time when hospitality is under pressure, we are putting restaurants back in control of their profitability and their destiny,” said Sheridan.
“The future of hospitality isn’t robots or gimmicks. It’s AI that makes restaurants smarter, leaner and more profitable, with automation that frees teams up to focus on what matters: great food and even greater customer experiences.”
Jose Gaytan de Ayala, who led the investment for Kinnevik, added: “Nory is rewriting the hospitality playbook.
“As the sector faces rising costs and complexity, Nory stands apart as the only AI-native platform purpose built to help restaurants meet and overcome these headwinds.
“We were impressed by the strong customer feedback, which highlighted the quality of Nory’s platform and the meaningful ROI it delivers for customers.
“With our support, Nory will go even deeper on AI and bring the next wave of innovation to restaurant owners in the UK and beyond.”
Tampa, FL , Sept. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ops+AI, a newly launched operations and automation company founded by entrepreneur and top-ranked podcast host Brian Lofrumento, today announced its official debut. The company introduces a streamlined approach to business growth by combining AI agents, Notion systems, Zapier automations, and custom GPTs into one cohesive infrastructure designed to serve as a “second brain” for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Ops+AI
As AI hype floods the market, entrepreneurs are piling up tools without building the operational backbone to support them. Ops+AI exists to fix that problem. Its mission is to transform operational noise into streamlined growth by blending Notion systems, Zapier automations, custom GPTs, and AI agents into an integrated “second brain for your business.”
Where Strategy Meets Automation
Ops+AI is guided by the idea that true scale happens at the intersection of strategy, systems, and speed.
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Strategy: designing businesses to grow intentionally, not reactively.
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Systems: replacing duct-taped tools with intelligent, interconnected infrastructure.
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Speed: enabling founders to move faster without sacrificing clarity.
“AI shouldn’t be loud or gimmicky,” said Ops+AI CEO and founder Brian Lofrumento. “It should be quiet power, embedded into systems that free entrepreneurs to focus on growth. That’s why we built Ops+AI.”
A Proven Foundation in a Top 1% Podcast
The company’s philosophy was born out of Lofrumento’s own journey of building the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Podcast, which has become one of the top 1% of shows worldwide with over 1,200 episodes and seven new releases each week.
Behind the scenes, a lean team has turned the show into a full-scale media company, managing pre-production, production, post-production, guest management, and a thriving entrepreneurial community hosting monthly Speakers Only events and network connections. Month after month, this operational backbone has delivered consistent growth in organic traffic and audience reach.
Ops+AI represents the codification of those same systems: precision-built infrastructure designed to help other entrepreneurs scale without chaos.
A Team Built With Intention
Ops+AI reflects more than Lofrumento’s vision. It is the product of a team deliberately assembled around clarity and design. The company’s team leverages talent from other ventures from within Lofrumento’s ecosystem, including:
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Laura Chaves, an operations strategist and key driver of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Podcast’s global growth, brings structure and discipline to every client engagement. She ensures systems aren’t just ideas on paper, but living frameworks that drive measurable results.
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Ken Parungao, brand strategist, crafted Ops+AI’s identity to mirror its philosophy: operations as continuity and flow, AI as quiet intelligence, and scale as the transformation from unfilled potential to optimized systems.
Press Release – Convergence
Mark Presnell, Managing Director at Convergence Ltd, which integrates eCommerce systems across New Zealand and Australia, says many online journeys today feel like walking into a retail store and finding no staff in sight.
AI answer engines are reshaping how customers engage with eCommerce sites, removing common barriers to conversion and creating new pressure points for digital businesses to adapt quickly.
Mark Presnell, Managing Director at Convergence Ltd, which integrates eCommerce systems across New Zealand and Australia, says many online journeys today feel like walking into a retail store and finding no staff in sight.
“Most customers don’t want to trawl through FAQs or search menus. Chatbots are often too limited to handle real buying questions. Concierge AI is different. It’s more like an informed salesperson who actually understands what you’re asking,” Presnell says.
Concierge-style AI uses retrieval augmented generation to generate accurate, brand-specific responses in natural language. It is gaining ground across both B2C and B2B environments. While B2C applications are becoming visible, the most immediate gains may lie in the B2B space. Buyers in this segment typically require complex, technical information and want quick confidence before progressing a purchase.
“B2B buyers are well informed. They come in expecting relevant, detailed answers and want them fast,” Presnell says. “An AI concierge can pull directly from a company’s own documents such as product specifications, support manuals, or contracts, and answer questions that would normally require a sales or support call.”
This matters in a landscape where buyers are increasingly anonymous, self-directed, and expect consumer-grade digital experiences even when making business decisions.
A recent Cognizant report notes that AI agents are evolving from basic automation into trusted intermediaries capable of shaping decisions and influencing revenue outcomes across customer touchpoints.
Three areas where AI concierge tools are making an impact
1. Reducing friction in complex B2B sales journeys
Presnell says AI concierge tools are particularly valuable in sectors with long buying cycles, technical products, or regulated content. When buyers cannot get quick clarity, the risk is not just delay but dropout. AI answers that are instant and precise can reduce time to confidence and support faster qualification of leads.
2. Closing the gap between marketing and sales
The questions customers ask AI agents can offer a direct lens into what content is missing, what messaging resonates, or what product details are unclear. “It is not just about answering questions. It is about learning from them,” Presnell says. “That feedback can inform marketing strategies or even product development.”
3. Scaling consistency without sacrificing control
AI concierge tools are trained on an organisation’s own content and can be moderated for tone, accuracy, and compliance. They are also configurable to avoid misinformation or unsupported responses. “We are seeing companies treat them like part of the sales team, with the same expectations around training and governance,” Presnell says.
Implementation and caution points
Integrating an AI concierge typically involves indexing approved company content, defining governance settings, and connecting with CRM and marketing platforms. Onboarding time can range from days to weeks, depending on complexity.
Presnell warns that not all systems are created equal. “You need confidence in how the AI is sourcing information, how hallucinations are prevented, and what oversight you have,” he says.
B2B firms in particular must ensure that customer data privacy, commercial sensitivity, and compliance requirements are rigorously met.
Leaders evaluating these tools should also consider whether their current site infrastructure can support real-time AI interactions and how success will be measured.
According to the World Economic Forum, the ability to operationalise AI within live customer experiences without losing brand trust will be a key differentiator in digital commerce.
Looking ahead
In Presnell’s view, AI concierge tools will become an expectation rather than a novelty.
“This is not about replacing people. It is about meeting buyers where they are,” he says. “Organisations that ignore these shifts risk becoming invisible at the very moment a customer is ready to engage.”
ABOUT
Based in Auckland but working with New Zealand companies nationwide, Convergence makes business in eCommerce simple. Experts in eCommerce integration, Convergence is responsible for creating the links between an eCommerce website and key business software systems in the cloud or on-premises. Convergence has developed its own cloud-based integration platform, CODI [Convergence Optimised Data Integration], which essentially acts as the hub between client systems and connects them.
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
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