London mayor Sadiq Khan brings in minimum salary of £23,000 for the capital’s bus drivers December 21, 2016 The mayor of London's office announced today that a new 'minimum professional London bus driver wage' will be introduced to apply to all new Transport for London (TfL) contracts awarded to bus companies from April next year. Sadiq Khan said he was taking the first step towards fulfilling his election manifesto promise to provide a new fairer deal for [...]
Deloitte in humiliating apology to Downing Street for leaked Brexit memo criticising Theresa May December 21, 2016 Deloitte has apologised to the government for the leak of a note that was highly critical of a lack of strategic direction – and has been forced to give up bids for Whitehall contracts, according to reports. The accountancy firm said the note “was not a Deloitte point of view”, while acknowledging the “disruption” it [...]
President Barack Obama bans new drilling for oil and gas in Chukchi and Beaufort seas in Arctic Ocean and offshore in the Atlantic December 21, 2016 Outgoing US President Barack Obama has banned new oil and gas drilling in millions of acres in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. President Obama used a little-known law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect 115m acres of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the Arctic, off the coast of Alaska, in a bid to [...]
QinetiQ poaches Meggitt’s Target Systems business for its new international arm for £57.5m December 21, 2016 FTSE 250-listed aerospace and defence firm Meggitt has sold its Target Systems arm to fellow mid-cap group QinetiQ for £57.5m in cash. Meggitt Target Systems is comprised of Meggitt Defence Systems and Meggitt Holdings Canada, and provides unmanned aerial, naval and land-based target systems to around 40 countries. Hampshire-based QinetiQ, which sealed a £1bn deal with the [...]
Big win for Wincanton as it inks four-year warehouse deal with Ikea December 21, 2016 Supply chain solutions group Wincanton has won the contract for Ikea's warehouses in London, the group announced today. Shares in Wincanton rose 2.34 per cent at the open. The agreement, which will run for four years, will see Wincanton lease and fit-out the warehouses on behalf of the Swedish furniture giant. Ikea's London warehouses occupy a combined [...]
From Manhattan hot dog cart to Leicester Square and UK expansion: The story behind upmarket burger restaurant Shake Shack December 21, 2016 Upmarket US burger company Shake Shack started as a modest hot dog cart in Madison Square Park in Manhattan in 2001. This month, it opened a new flagship UK store in Leicester Square, its fourth this side of the pond, with two more – in Victoria and Canary Wharf – to follow early next year. [...]
Holiday delivery failures threaten to have a big impact on UK retailers’ bottom lines and tarnish reputations December 21, 2016 Delivery failures over the Christmas period are set to impact UK retailers' bottom lines as they could be missing out on more than £3bn, new research today revealed. In the UK, 16m consumers faced delivery delays over the 2015 holiday season, and 73 per cent of them still refuse to shop with the offending retailer this [...]
Atom banks on consumers’ dis-appisfaction with traditional retail banks December 21, 2016 The launch of Atom bank earlier this year was a watershed for both the finance and technology sectors. It is the first British bank with no branches and no call centres as everything is done through an app on customers’ phones. Around 30,000 people have signed up for Atom so far. While these numbers by [...]
Coca-Cola gulps down stake in AB InBev’s Coca-Cola Beverages Africa unit for $3.15bn December 21, 2016 Coca-Cola has snapped up a 54.5 per cent equity stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) bottling business for $3.15bn (£2.5bn). The Africa unit includes operations in a dozen countries, including South Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya. It was previously owned by British firm SABMiller, which AB InBev took over for £79bn in October. [...]
Expecting RBS profits is living in a fool’s paradise December 21, 2016 In just 10 days from now you will likely find yourself celebrating the end of 2016, and the start of a new year. If your headache the following morning isn’t bad enough, consider this – a decade earlier, on 1 January 2007, a share in the Royal Bank of Scotland was worth £55.80. Today, its [...]