House of Fraser closure vote looms as politicians fear jobs cuts and end to iconic stores June 21, 2018 Politicians and landlords fear thousands of job losses and the death of beloved high street stores ahead of House of Fraser’s vote on store closures tomorrow. The struggling retailer’s creditors will decide tomorrow whether to approve a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), which will result in 31 of the 59 House of Fraser stores closing down. [...]
Pharma firm Circassia bashed by shareholder vote against executive pay May 30, 2018 Investors today gave bosses at Circassia a bloody nose as a fifth voted against the remuneration report at the pharmaceutical firm backed by star fund manager Neil Woodford. Some 20.51 per cent of shareholders voted against approving the Oxford-headquartered speciality pharma firm’s executive pay, the firm announced after its annual general meeting. Circassia has struggled [...]
Sunderland axe Chris Coleman and announce sale of club to consortium headed by chairman of non-league Eastleigh April 29, 2018 Sunderland will begin life in English football’s third tier under new ownership after it was confirmed that the Black Cats have been sold to an international consortium headed by the chairman of non-league Eastleigh, Stewart Donald. The first casualty of the takeover, which requires ratification by the Football League, is former Wales manager Chris Coleman, [...]
Liuwa Plains in northwest Zambia is one of the most remote safari parks in the world, here’s what we found there April 6, 2018 Linda Evangelista infamously said that she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000. And after 11 hours travelling along Zambian roads, I’d have quoted a similar price to get back in a 4×4. But the prospect of a cheetah sighting was dangled in front of me, and that was enough to sweeten the [...]
GKN launches scathing attack on “novice” Melrose March 21, 2018 Engineering giant GKN today attempted to put the record straight by taking apart a string of claims by hostile suitor Melrose. In a statement entitled “Rebutting Melrose’s misleading statements”, the FTSE 100 firm covered its planned motor merger with Dana, strategy for its aerospace arm, research and development spend and pension plans. It also aimed [...]
Lucy Watson and Clive Watson discuss Tell Your Friends, London’s upcoming vegan foodie hotspot March 19, 2018 Growing up as the daughter of a man who has launched and sold several successful pub chains, Lucy Watson never thought she would launch her own hospitality business. “I always thought of it as quite a manly industry,” she says. Apart from sometimes working as a waitress in his pubs, her aspirations were fixed elsewhere. [...]
Transport secretary says no border checks at Dover after Brexit March 16, 2018 Transport secretary Chris Grayling has said trucks coming into Dover will be checked after the UK leaves the European Union. Grayling told BBC Question Time it would be “unrealistic” to impose checks on lorries coming into the port, which, according to an Imperial College London study, could introduce traffic queues of up to 29 miles [...]
The region around Vietnam’s UNESCO heritage city of Hoi An is home to tourist sites worthy of Lara Croft herself March 9, 2018 The narrow stone passageway opened into a small stone altar featuring the carved statue of a goddess. Was this a place of worship, I wondered, or sacrifice? At this stage it was hard to tell, but I was enjoying scaring myself. The shadowy passageway curved around again, this time leading to a set of steps [...]
Summer and Smoke at the Almeida: Tennessee Williams’ complex play is brought to heart-rending life in this fantastic production March 9, 2018 Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke is about opposing forces: the microscopic and the infinite, the physical and the spiritual, anarchy and order, sanity and madness, and the thankless task we humans have trying to work out where exactly we fit into all this. It tackles these swooping metaphysical questions through the prism of unrequited [...]
SEO opportunity still there for PR agencies. But will they take it? March 6, 2018 Just over a year ago, I argued that the UK PR industry was missing the search engine optimisation (SEO) boat as data implied the number of agencies offering SEO services had dropped markedly. One year on, I take a look at how the market is developing. If you’re new to search marketing, how Google – [...]