Dutch coffee-making giants Jacob Douwe Egberts (JDE) announced last year that its plant off Ruscote Avenue in Banbury, would shut.

The factory is home to an honours board made up of plaques honouring those who worked there for 30 or more years.

The long-service Honours Board, with over 600 names of employees who worked for more than 30 years, is a key part of the factory’s history.

JDE is preserving the legacy of its Banbury factory before its closure, including preserving the original plaques.

Campaigners have been working for over a year to get their own plaques back, or their families plaques back.

Now, the company and Cherwell District Council have confirmed plaques will be displayed for the community.

Councillor Lesley McLean, Leader of Cherwell District Council, stated the council’s support for preserving these “historic items” in recognition of the factory’s contribution to Banbury.

Gordon Boffin, partner of Jo Mobley who has been instrumental in the campaign to return the plaques, said the recipients and their families just want them back.

Jo Mobley is attempting to reunite more than 600 others on the board with theirs, as well as her fathers

Ms Mobley has started the Facebook page ‘help reunite 30 years service plaques from JDE’.

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Workers for JDE coffee plant, which has closed (Image: Contributed)

The Facebook group has more than 230 followers with workers and family members alike trying to retrieve the plaques.

Talking to the BBC, she said: “It started as a very small mission and its ended up very big – it’s snowballed into finding more than 600 names.”

“I would like every person, or as quite a few have passed away, any of their families to be reunited with their plaques,” she said.

The group was working with the Labour MP for Banbury, Sean Woodcock, to retrieve the plaques.

The original plaques from the factory and the Bird’s cockerel gates to the factory are familiar landmarks in Banbury.

The gates will also be displayed to the community following the closure.

The factory, which opened as a General Foods plant in 1964, produced household brands like Bird’s Custard, Kenco, and Tassimo.

JDE Peet’s is also donating over £24,000 to various local organisations, including Banbury Young Homelessness Project, The Sunshine Centre, Banbury Museum, and The Horton General Hospital.

The funds were partially raised by auctioning equipment from the site.

The factory also have an over 18-year long partnership with Katherine House Hospice in Adderbury, which it has donated more than £62,000 to.

The company has pledged to continue providing the hospice with coffee for the next two years.

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Forecourt Eye will give more than 2,000 UK forecourts free access to a new crime-reporting platform through a partnership with Facewatch. The move comes as unpaid fuel incidents remain above earlier levels and operators report wider retail crime and abuse against staff.

The new system will be added to existing Forecourt Eye tablets used at filling stations, allowing operators to manage fuel theft, shop theft and police reports on one platform.

Forecourt Eye’s analysis of 550 forecourts found unpaid fuel incidents averaged 189 a day in the five months after 28 February, up from 158 a day in the previous five months. Extrapolated across the UK’s 8,350 forecourts, that suggests daily incidents rose from about 2,400 to 2,872.

The estimated volume of fuel involved rose 24% from 87,800 litres to 108,900 litres a day. Its estimated daily value increased 48% from about GBP £131,000 to GBP £194,000, equivalent to roughly GBP £70.7 million a year if the current rate continues.

The figures point to a rising cost burden for operators as pump prices and incident levels increase at the same time. According to Forecourt Eye, unpaid fuel incidents, including drive-offs and declarations of no means of payment, are running 20% above the level seen before fuel prices rose sharply following the conflict in Iran.

Broader Crime

Operators say the problem now extends beyond the pumps. As forecourts have expanded into convenience retailing, they are also dealing with shop theft, intimidation and violence against frontline workers.

Michelle Henchoz, Managing Director of Forecourt Eye, set out the rationale for the tie-up. “Our customers have told us they increasingly want one place to manage everything from unpaid fuel and ANPR intelligence through to shop theft, violence and police reporting. This partnership delivers exactly that while fitting seamlessly into the way they already work. As offending becomes more organised and more sophisticated, operators need joined-up technology that helps them protect both their forecourt and their convenience store.”

Forecourt Eye already provides a tablet-based system that retailers use to handle incidents and recover payments from motorists who say they cannot pay. It also uses automatic number plate recognition technology to flag vehicles linked to previous offending.

From September, customers will receive an additional app on the same devices, giving them access to Facewatch’s crime-management system. Retailers will not need to install live facial recognition cameras to use the reporting platform.

Shared Intelligence

The partnership also links two separate intelligence pools. Forecourt Eye says it holds a private database of more than 300,000 vehicle registrations associated with fuel theft, while Facewatch maintains a national database of retail offenders.

Nick Fisher, Chief Executive of Facewatch, said: “The distinction between fuel crime and retail crime has largely disappeared. Modern forecourts face the same prolific offenders, violence and abuse experienced across the wider retail sector. By combining Forecourt Eye’s expertise on the forecourt with Facewatch’s crime-management capability, we’re giving operators a single platform to prevent crime, manage investigations and help police tackle repeat and violent offenders.”

Operators that choose to add Facewatch’s live facial recognition system will be able to combine number plate recognition on the forecourt with facial recognition inside the shop, creating coverage from a vehicle’s arrival on site to a customer’s departure from the store.

Facewatch says its wider retail network already spans more than 125 retailers across thousands of stores in the UK. Its system generated more than 500,000 real-time alerts of known offenders in 2025.

The Petrol Retailers Association said the change reflects how crime on forecourts has evolved as sites have become mixed fuel and convenience businesses. Staff are increasingly exposed to anger from customers over prices and to repeat offending that mirrors patterns seen across the wider retail sector.

Gordon Balmer, Executive Director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said: “Today’s forecourts are dealing with far more than fuel theft. Our members are reporting increasing levels of abuse and aggression towards colleagues who are simply doing their jobs and have no influence over the price displayed on the forecourt. Crime on Britain’s forecourts no longer begins and ends at the pump. Whether it is unpaid fuel, shop theft, organised crime or unacceptable abuse of staff, operators need joined-up solutions that recognise how these issues increasingly overlap. Bringing together technologies that help retailers prevent crime, manage incidents and support police investigations is a positive step for the industry.”

Ski Yodl Ltd, founded in March 2018, offered ski holiday packages to destinations including the French Alps.

The company’s LinkedIn profile described it as “a collective of ski industry professionals driven to create a customer-centric booking experience with skiing at its core”.

All holiday packages cancelled as Ski Yodl enters liquidation

After eight years, Ski Yodl, based in Norwich, is now set to close, having voluntarily entered liquidation.

A voluntary winding-up order was agreed on July 22, according to The Gazette, with Richard Cacho from RCM Advisory Limited appointed liquidator.

As a result, all package holidays booked through Ski Yodl have been cancelled.

ABTA, one of the UK’s largest travel trade associations, said: “We do not believe that there were any current customer bookings for package holidays at the time of liquidation.

“However, any customers who believe they may be affected should contact ABTA by emailing claimsrequest@abta.co.uk with details of their booking.”

The company also arranged accommodation-only bookings, which were not covered by ABTA protection.

ABTA advised: “Customers that paid by credit or debit card and had accommodation-only bookings will need to contact their card issuer for assistance with obtaining a refund.

“Any customers that paid by other means such as bank transfer will need to register their claim with the liquidator, RCM Advisory Limited, on 01603 331960 or info@rcmadvisory.co.uk.”

Other UK travel companies that have closed in 2026

Several UK travel companies have also ceased trading or entered administration in 2026:

Meanwhile, four UK airlines have fallen into administration or liquidation this year:

• Ascend Airways (liquidation)
• EcoJet Airlines (liquidation)
• Zenith Aviation Limited (administration)
• European Cargo (administration)

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