HEINZ TESTS OUT ITS NEW CAFE IN THE CITY
FOR those City workers already missing their comfort foods after the Christmas break, food group Heinz has come up with the ideal solution.
Just three minutes walk from Liverpool Street station, Heinz is trialling a cafe this week whose power lunch is the well-known staple of baked beans on toast.
This is the first restaurant venture for the food group and it will be open for business for just four days. If the trial goes well, the group may set up similar cafes on a permanent basis across the country.
The “It has to be Heinz” cafe is offering beans on toast for a suggested donation of 50p per serving to raise money for the charity Help a London Child. With the cold weather still casting an icy grip over the country, Heinz’s hearty, warming fare is so far proving a popular addition to the City’s gastronomic scene.
The cafe opened on Monday and has had people queuing outside of the door to get a plate of beans.
With people in the City renowned for working long hours and missing out on meals, Heinz has played on the concept of “home” comforts, decking out the café in the style of an old-fashioned kitchen.
One City worker, freelance investment consultant Mike Derks, said: “I grew up eating Heinz beans on toast as a kid and to happen upon the cafe in the heart of the City is just like stepping into someone’s family kitchen. This is a tremendous idea and a comforting experience.”
UBS GETS ETHICAL
“We do not provide assistance to clients or colleagues in acts aimed at deceiving tax authorities.”
Meet the “new UBS” where respect, integrity – and abiding by the law – are paramount in the investment bank.
Chief executive Oswald Grübel is trying to turn over a new leaf at the Swiss bank after agreeing to pay a $780m fine and disclose data on 250 secret accounts to the US?authorities following allegations it assisted citizens avoid paying their taxes. Just last week, a former employee-turned-key informant began a jail sentence for his role in helping UBS clients dodge the taxman.
Employees have this week received a new code of conduct that they must abide to. “What has happened over the past few years must no longer be possible,” Grübel said in a memo. Shareholders must be hoping for the same thing. UBS racked up some of the biggest write-downs in Europe from the credit crisis, and reported the largest loss in Swiss corporate history.
NICE TO BE SEEN
It seems the influence of City A.M. and its indispensable mix of news, sport, features, lifestyle and opinion extends far beyond the Square Mile.
While TV cameras over in Westminster were fixed on Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell as he gave evidence to the Chilcot inquiry on the Iraq war, many of our readers spotted a man in the row of seats behind him with a well-thumbed copy of this fine newspaper tucked under his arm.
City A.M.’s unmistakable masthead was clearly visible above Campbell’s left shoulder throughout much of his televised session in front of the panel and a still image of the same shot adorned the front page of the BBC’s website for most of the day.
The reader clutching his City A.M. with a firm grip was sadly unidentifiable – the camera angle cut him off at the neck. And no, to answer queries we received, he wasn’t being paid.