Well I'm pleased that you have decided to rethink your assignment from yesterday because I think your original scope would have been really tricky. Not only had you picked a business (Meccano) which is based in France, but one owned by a couple of venture capitalists, one Italian and the other French, about which there is virtually nothing in English to source on the web. Also the toy industry is very specific and small segment. It was proving quite difficult for me.
Now you have gone the other way and set it very broad!
Assuming you mean UK businesses in the last 5 years, a couple of starters for 10 could be:
Economic: change in VAT to 20% impacted all businesses providing goods and services on which VAT is charged. Optional / discretionary goods/service business impacted more (for example, luxury goods).
UK Government response to the banking crisis has strengthened the £ against the Euro. This impacts negatively those businesses that export into Eurozone, our largest export trading zone.
Employment: the minimum wage has been uplifted at least once in the last 5 years.
Employment: Enterprise Zones - you'd have to research this, I'm out of date.
Taxation: Current Government are in the process of reducing the main rate of Corporation Tax.