While some companies are suffering huge financial losses in response to the nationwide lockdown, other retailers are thriving. Food retailers, takeaway delivery services and entertainment channels such as Netflix and Disney Plus are expected to walk away with millions of pounds worth of profits fuelled by the coronavirus outbreak. As a result, some have called for the Treasure to introduce a windfall tax on all UK companies that are thriving during the health crisis.

An excess profits tax would involve targeting companies disproproatiately benefitting from times of crisis.

Gabriel Zucman, an associate professor at Berkeley University in the US, explained: “The idea is you have some corporation that disproportionately benefits from the crisis, either because their competitors are shut down or because they exploit the crisis by hiking prices.”

Such an approach was instigated during the two world wars.

Lockdown fuelled panic-buying saw supermarket sales soar by over 20 percent in March, its biggest ever month on record for grocery sales.

Britons spent a record £10.8 billion on groceries, as fears of the spread of coronavirus drove people to stock up on goods such as toilet roll, pasta and tinned food.

The closure of pubs and restaurants also saw alcohol sales surge by 22 percent in the same month.

All 10 of the UK’s biggest food retailers saw their sales increase in the 12 weeks to March 22.

Sales at Iceland jumped by 11.7 precent as Britons looked to stock up their freezers.

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Online only supermarket Ocado saw sales jump by 12.5 percent, as the demand for home deliveries increased dramatically.

The site was forced to suspend new orders for several days as people experienced hours of virtual queues just to enter the website.

Ocado also reported revenue was up by more than 40 percent in April compared with the same month last year.

Sales at German discounters Aldi and Lidl rose by 11 percent and 17.6 percent respectively.

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HelloFresh, a food retailer that provides its customers with recipe box’s, also recorded a record boost in sales in the first quarter of the year.

The number of active customers jumped 68.4 percent to 4.18m in the first three months of 2020 compared to the previous year.

Revenue soared 66.4 percent to €699.1million (£626m) as the company delivered more than 111m meals to customers during the first quarter.

The company’s growth is now expected to be between 40-50 percent, up from previous estimates of 22-27 percent.

Some companies are looking out for their employees, with several food retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, announcing wage increases and full pay for vulnerable workers having to self-isolate for 12 weeks inline with current Government guidance.

Supermarkets have also introduced a number of ways to support elderly and vulnerably people access the food and goods that they need.

Several retailers have introduced essential food boxes delivered directly to people’s homes.

Supermarkets have warned they may not see a huge rise in profits this year, as social distancing measures limit the number of customers allowed to enter its stores at any one time.

Similarly, retailers have been hit by high numbers of staff absences, hiring tens of thousands of new staff and having to install protective screens in all of their stores.

Sainsbury’s, which also owns Argos, expects to take a £500million hit to annual profits this year.

Tesco has also warned its profits could take a hit, as its wholesale business has been affected by the closure of bars and restaurants.