Surprise departure for bosses at Virgin Trains October 7, 2013 VIRGIN TRAINS will lose its long-serving boss this month, as the firm prepares to pitch again for the West Coast Main Line and other routes. Tony Collins, who has been with the firm for 14 years and served as chief executive for nine years, will stay on as a consultant to advise Virgin on its [...]
Ice cream seller scoops prize for business savvy October 7, 2013 HEARD about the apocryphal salesman who flogged coal to Newcastle? Well it seems James Lambert has gone one better by managing to infiltrate the notoriously nationalistic Italian marketplace with his ice creams. Lambert, chairman of R&R Ice Cream – which sells brands like Fab, Skinny Cow and Kelly’s of Cornwall – scooped the top prize [...]
It could be worse for Carney October 7, 2013 WHILE Bank of England governor Mark Carney faces problems convincing markets to accept his forward guidance scheme, new historical evidence suggests he may be getting off lightly. Newly released diary pages from Margaret Thatcher’s economic adviser Alan Walters claim that Bank governor Gordon Richardson “got a boll***ing” for raising the benchmark interest rate while she [...]
On one’s head: Football comes to the palace October 7, 2013 THE first ever official football match in the grounds of Buckingham Palace took place yesterday, to mark the Football Association’s 150th anniversary. The match was the brainchild of Prince Wiliam, the Duke of Cambridge – who is also president of the FA. He even took to the pitch to join players in the second half, warning [...]
Reed Elsevier sells tech group back to founder October 7, 2013 BRITAIN’S fastest growing technology company MVF yesterday announced that it has bought back Approved Index, the business that its founder sold to Reed Elsevier in 2008. Titus Sharpe sold Approved Index to the FTSE 100 firm five years ago, before using the proceeds of the sale to found MVF, which uses technology to win customers [...]
Smartphones to influence £18bn of high street sales made in 2013 October 7, 2013 SMARTPHONES will influence more than £18bn of high street shopping sales this year, a jump of 45 per cent from 2012, according to a research out yesterday. The survey by Deloitte found that consumers who use their smartphones before or during their shopping trip are not only more likely to make a purchase, but also [...]
Nokia begins to map its future with Mitsubishi October 7, 2013 NOKIA yesterday announced a deal to provide Mitsubishi Motors with mapping data from its HERE business. The deal gives Nokia’s mapping service another customer, having secured partnerships with Amazon, Bing, Yahoo and Flickr for location data. “We were the first company to support the launch of in-car navigation in Mitsubishi’s vehicles back in the late [...]
International markets open up for STV in deal with Red Arrow October 7, 2013 SCOTTISH broadcaster STV has signed a new partnership with Red Arrow Entertainment, meaning the German firm will become STV’s worldwide distributor for programmes and formats outside of the UK from January 2014. STV, whose programmes include Antiques Road Trip, said the deal would allow the companies to “work closely together to develop brand new formats [...]
Apple cleared of all wrongdoing after four-month US tax probe October 7, 2013 APPLE has been cleared of any wrongdoing after the iPhone maker came under scrutiny by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for corporate tax avoidance. The computing giant was examined by a senate committee, which accused Apple of using a tax avoidance strategy to pay little or no corporate tax on its $74bn profits [...]
Intu bets on Spanish recovery as it splashes out on shopping mall October 7, 2013 SHOPPING centre owner Intu Properties said yesterday it had teamed up with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to buy a shopping centre in northern Spain, marking the beginning of a partnership with the North American dealmaker. The two paid €162m (£136.7m) for the 75,000 square metre-large Parque Principado Shopping Centre in Asturias, implying a net [...]
