Paxon has appointed Anthony Heath as Business Development Manager, adding to the logistics group’s recent expansion of its commercial team.

Heath joins the newly formed brand created by combining Active Ants, Staci and Radial. In recent months, Paxon has made several Business Development Manager appointments, including Ranjit Singh Nagra, as it looks to support international brands entering the UK market.

His appointment comes as Paxon builds out its sales operation across fashion, beauty, wellness and lifestyle. Heath will focus on those sectors, drawing on more than 20 years of logistics experience.

Before joining Paxon, he held roles at UK Mail and EV Cargo. He later established and led logistics operations at Saint-Gobain and Clugston Global Logistics.

Most recently, Heath worked at DHL, focusing on the large-item home and garden segment. There, he led new business development and managed transport and warehousing accounts.

Growth push

Paxon is part of bnode, which provides services in more than 200 countries. In the UK, it operates from sites in Blackburn, Leicester, Northampton, Oldham and Wigan.

The business is positioning itself to meet demand from brands seeking outsourced logistics and fulfilment support in Britain. Its recent commercial hires point to a broader push to strengthen customer acquisition as retailers and consumer brands reassess supply chains, delivery expectations and returns handling.

Heath said he was attracted by the group’s established reputation in fulfilment and logistics services.

“Paxon and the companies it encompasses have built a strong reputation for creating streamlined fulfilment operations for brands of all sizes. They are known for developing strategic end-to-end solutions that deliver tangible results, and that is exactly why I wanted to join the team.

“Logistics and fulfilment have a profound impact on customer loyalty and brand growth. Today’s customers expect speed, convenience, seamless returns and sustainable operations. I am looking forward to working with clients to create solutions that meet these expectations,” Heath said.

Commercial team

Chief Executive Officer Wayne Chapman said the business is adding sales staff as eCommerce logistics continues to evolve. He linked that shift to advances in technology and artificial intelligence, which are reshaping how fulfilment providers meet customer demands and use operational data.

“It is an exciting time to join Paxon, and we are delighted to have Anthony on board. He brings extensive experience and a strong understanding of tech-enabled, scalable fulfilment solutions that create genuine value for customers.

“E-commerce fulfilment is constantly evolving, with advances in technology and AI creating new opportunities. We are building a sales team that can keep pace with these changes, use data and market insight, and provide strategic consultancy to help clients develop tailored solutions. Anthony will be a key part of that capability,” Chapman said.

The appointment reflects wider consolidation and repositioning across the logistics sector, as providers broaden their reach through brand integration and targeted hiring. For Paxon, Heath’s arrival adds another senior commercial figure with experience across parcels, warehousing and sector-specific logistics accounts.

Topps Tiles has said the closures, which results in 7% of its 319-strong estate, will help slash costs as part of “significant self-help measures” in the face of a tougher home improvement market.

The Leicestershire-based tile chain added that this also includes savings being made at its head office.

It’s thought the move will “provide a stronger financial platform for 2027 and beyond”.

Topps said the stores are under-performing, with eight already closed since last September and the remainder being shut over the next six months.

However, it did not disclose what impact the moves would have on its workforce.

Topps Tiles chief executive Alex Jensen, who took over as chief executive on December 8 after former longstanding boss Rob Parker retired, commented: “In light of subdued consumer sentiment and geopolitical uncertainty as well as the cumulative impact of cost inflation, the management team is implementing a targeted programme of self-help measures weighted towards the second half.

“These actions are designed to support year on year profit growth and provide a stronger financial platform for 2027 and beyond.”

The tile company said sales fell 0.1% to £142.7 million in the six months to March 28, though it said revenues were impacted by a “lengthy” competition process and disposal programme required to appease competition concerns after it bought CTD out of administration in 2024.

With the CTD business stripped out, sales rose 2.1%, though it said growth slowed sharply to 0.6% in the second quarter.

It said it performed better than the wider DIY and home improvement market.

The cost savings efforts are set to impact sales, but boost profitability, Topps Tiles said.

Topps saw its deal to buy CTD out of administration probed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which required it to sell off a number of CTD stores to appease concerns.

The firm was left with 22 CTD stores, down from an initial 31.

In December, it also bought the brand of collapsed rival Fired Earth in a £3 million rescue deal after the Oxfordshire-based competitor tumbled into administration in October, resulting in the closure of its 20 UK showrooms and 133 job cuts.

Topps said the group is on track to return the CTD arm to profit in 2025-26, having notched up like-for-like sales growth of 1% across the division in the first half to March 28.

The firm reported a statutory pre-tax profit of £8.3 million in the year to September, swinging from a £16.2 million pre-tax loss a year earlier.

It will report half-year figures on May 19.

UK businesses that have entered administration in 2026

Topps Tiles isn’t the only major UK business affected by rising costs in 2026, which has already seen several retailers entering administration and others announcing widespread store closures.

Fashion brand LK Bennett collapsed into administration in January and launched a closing-down sale at its stores.

John Noon and Mark Firmin of Alvarez & Marsal Europe LLP were appointed joint administrators.

Following this, the LK Bennett brand and related intellectual property were sold to US firm Gordon Brothers, which also owns Laura Ashley and Poundland.

Alongside this, major high street retailers, including River Island, Primark, and Poundland, have been forced to close stores, while Revolution and BrewDog have shut the doors to 21 and 38 pubs, respectively.

UK construction company Onespace Group, which is based in Knutsford near Manchester and specialises in the creation of commercial office spaces, entered administration recently too.

Recommended reading:

UK beauty firm Beauty Bay filed for administration this month but was saved.

A French-owned company called AA Investments Group bought it for an undisclosed amount, saving stores and people’s jobs.

Russell & Bromley, Moores, Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop, Quiz, Denby, and National Car Parks (NCP) have also fallen into administration recently.

Which shops have recently closed near you that you miss? Let us know in the comments below.

Exclaimer has urged organisations to tighten controls over outbound email governance after new UK data showed that 83% of IT leaders had experienced an email-related security incident.

The findings suggest a gap between investment in cloud access security and oversight of what leaves company systems through email. Only 38% of UK enterprises have fully integrated email into their wider security and compliance stack, limiting central control over external communications.

The warning comes as UK businesses continue to face persistent cyber risks. Government survey data cited by Exclaimer shows that 43% of UK businesses reported a cyber breach over the past year, with phishing and other email-borne threats still the most common route in.

While much of the security debate has focused on inbound threats, Exclaimer argued that outbound email has received less scrutiny. Governance, it said, often breaks down at the point of sending, where individual users, manual processes and disconnected tools create inconsistency.

Exclaimer also highlighted the financial impact of cyber incidents, citing research that puts the average cost of a significant cyber attack to a UK business at almost £195,000. Across the UK, that amounts to roughly £14.7 billion a year.

Communication Risk

Karl Bagci, Director of IT and Information Security at Exclaimer, said the main issue for many organisations is no longer basic awareness of email risk, but the ability to apply controls consistently across large volumes of communication.

“World Cloud Security Day is a reminder that most organisations have gotten very good at controlling who gets into their systems, but far fewer are controlling what comes out,” said Bagci. “Email is still one of the most trusted and heavily used business channels, but it remains one of the least consistently governed at scale. What we’re seeing is a shift in risk from infrastructure to behaviour: how people communicate, what they send, and whether those communications are controlled.”

That argument reflects a broader shift in security priorities as businesses adopt more cloud software and spread work across more devices and users. The challenge, according to Exclaimer, is maintaining oversight once communication leaves tightly controlled systems and becomes part of day-to-day staff activity.

This is particularly relevant where disclaimers, branding and compliance messages are handled by individual employees rather than enforced centrally. In those cases, organisations may struggle to ensure that every message meets internal policy or external regulatory requirements.

Blind Spot

Bagci said the weak point often sits at the boundary between secure systems and employee actions.

“This creates a critical blind spot at the point where communication exits the organisation, affecting compliance, brand integrity, and customer trust,” he said. “Without centralised governance, businesses have limited control over how disclaimers are applied, how regulatory requirements are met, or how consistently the organisation is represented across every interaction.”

That concern is likely to be more acute in regulated sectors, where missing or inconsistent information in customer emails can create legal or compliance problems. Even in less tightly regulated industries, inconsistent messaging can still affect customer confidence and corporate reputation.

Exclaimer linked the trend to the growing scale and complexity of business communication. It cited IBM research showing that one in six data breaches now involve AI-driven attacks, underlining how quickly communication volumes and risks are changing.

Real-Time Oversight

Exclaimer argued that managing email risk at scale requires policy-led controls applied in real time, rather than relying on manual action by staff. The issue becomes more pressing as email traffic spreads across users, devices and AI-assisted tools.

Exclaimer, which sells email signature management software for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, framed the issue as one of governance rather than simple technical defence. In its view, cloud security efforts have become stronger at controlling access to systems, but less effective at controlling the information that leaves them.

“World Cloud Security Day serves as a timely reminder that cloud security is no longer just about protecting systems. It is about managing the flow of information across them. And that includes looking at how you govern your email communications,” said Bagci.