Restaurant Group profit surges September 2, 2010 The Restaurant Group – which owns Garfunkel’s, Chiquito, Frankie & Benny’s – yesterday reported an upturn in profit despite the ash cloud crisis which hit its airport concessions. It saw its pre-tax profit rise 13 per cent to £24.6m in the six months to July. The company raised its interim dividend ten per cent to [...]
Austerity Games can still be a triumph July 26, 2010 WHEN London last hosted the Olympic games, it was 1948. The Allies had won the war, but Britain’s rewards were still to come: food was still rationed; the capital’s streets looked like rows of broken teeth (post-war construction was but a dream); and there was quite simply no cash at all to spend on stadiums [...]
Ryanair to cut Dublin flights as passenger traffic declines July 8, 2010 IRISH airline Ryanair said it would cut its Dublin winter capacity by 15 per cent as passenger traffic falls, and again called for a tourist tax to be scrapped and airport charge increases to be reversed. Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier will cut its Dublin base to 12 aircraft from 14 aircraft this winter and will [...]
Ryanair to cut back winter capacity by 16pc in the UK June 29, 2010 RYANAIR is expecting to cut its UK winter capacity by 16 per cent, marking the largest cut it has made to its winter traffic. The Irish low budget airline blamed the government’s air passenger duty (APD) for damaging UK tourism and forcing it to make the cut. Chief executive Michael O’Leary said yesterday the airline [...]
Retailers warn tax hike threatens sales recovery June 22, 2010 RETAILERS yesterday warned the rise in VAT would dent a recovery on the High Street, but won an important concession by convincing the Treasury to delay its introduction until 4 January. Treasury sources said the chancellor had taken into account the “hoo hah” experienced by the industry when the last change in VAT was enacted almost [...]
Go hide away in the sun-drenched valleys of Jordan May 9, 2010 THE afternoon sun is browning our sweaty pink skin as we lie by the pool at Evason Ma’in, nudged between a massive yellowstone fortress-style hotel and a water-spewing rock face. Well, it may be all lemonade, glossy magazines, dramatic scenery and sun-tanning poolside, but just a few kilometres away on the Dead Sea’s south-east coast [...]
Banks and champagne are out, but the Tory big beast is still standing May 4, 2010 KEN Clarke has gone awol. He left the last campaign stop at the same time as his chief of staff, who has long since arrived, but is nowhere to be seen. “He insists on driving himself,” one aide tells me, with an exasperated look. Eventually, forty-five minutes after we’re supposed to meet, he storms into [...]
Labour and Liberals move to the left April 14, 2010 NEW Labour isn’t dead: about that Alistair Darling could not have been any more emphatic in his interview with City A.M. today. We asked him whether Labour’s manifesto – with its 50p tax, restrictions on hostile takeover bids, increases in regulation and no clear plan to reduce the size of the state – should be [...]
ANALYSTS TAKE THEIR GAMBLE ON WORLD CUP April 7, 2010 WORLD Cup fever is starting to grip the City in earnest ahead of the summer in South Africa, as evidenced by the latest analysts to have a pop at the business impact of the tournament. Sanford Bernstein’s Trevor Stirling, Joao Valli and Melissa Yates yesterday released a missive on the effects of the World Cup [...]
Tories need to switch strategy or lose March 15, 2010 ALL the opinion polls are giving the same message: Britain is on course for a hung parliament, with no political party in overall control come May. Given that this election ought to be a shoo-in for the Tories, and that they were easily ahead just a few months ago, this is an extraordinary state of [...]