Broadgate ice skating rink’s warm welcome for professionals as Christmas comes to the City November 26, 2014 Broadgate was filled with the sounds of relieved admiration last night as the crowd at its ice rink launch party watched as performers glided, spun, lifted and swung. Representatives from the Prince’s Trust, Berkeley Group, Broadgate and FTI Consulting among others all mingled, enjoying their first mulled wine of the year and bites [...]
2014 Black Friday to push UK Christmas spend to £91bn November 26, 2014 Half of Britain’s shoppers are set to storm online stores, shopping centres and supermarkets tomorrow in what is expected to be one of the biggest shopping occasions of the year. Some 47 per cent of shoppers are preparing to take part in Black Friday, which is expected to help push the UK’s Christmas spending up [...]
Black Friday UK 2014: 5 of the worst Amazon lightning deals savvy shoppers have not been waiting for November 26, 2014 Everyone loves a bargain, but there are some things that scream “rather not” than “must have”. Among quite a few decent deals on expensive tech and electrical items, some of Amazon’s early flash deal Black Friday treats are, well, a little underwhelming, let’s say. Here are five of the least exciting deals waiting for you [...]
Black Friday 2014: From Uranium ore to free guns – five of the weirdest US Black Friday deals November 26, 2014 The US takes its Christmas shopping seriously. Black Friday, the day US shoppers traditionally pull themselves out of their Thanksgiving-induced food comas and hit the high street, was worth $12.3bn (£7.8bn) last year. And while some of the discounts retailers make to entice shoppers are pretty extreme (Walmart, for instance, is selling iPads for $199, [...]
Pub group Mitchells & Butlers faces “huge fine”, landlady and chef face jail time, over “toxic turkey” Christmas lunch death November 26, 2014 Pub group Mitchells & Butlers – which owns the All Bar One and O'Neill's chains – faces a huge fine, while a landlady and her chef could serve jail time after a woman died from eating toxic turkey at an Essex pub. Della Callagher died and 32 other diners became seriously ill after eating [...]
AO.com founder John Roberts: The man who started his business over a £1 bet November 25, 2014 AO.com founder John Roberts is the kind of bloke you want to go for a pint with. He may well have presided over a £1.2bn float earlier this year and reportedly trousered half a billion in the process, but he’s down to earth, thinks being called Kitchen King is conceited and he’s wary of the [...]
Black Friday UK 2014: John Lewis gears up for weekend shopping frenzy as sales growth slows November 25, 2014 John Lewis said yesterday it was gearing up for this weekend’s shopping frenzy that begins with Black Friday, as sales growth slowed over the past week. Sales in the week ending Saturday 22 November rose to £114.2m, 2.1 per cent up on the same period last year and a five per cent rise on the [...]
John Lewis’ 2014 Christmas ad campaign is the full Monty – Brand Index November 25, 2014 John Lewis’ Monty the Penguin Christmas advert was released earlier this month amid a great deal of hype, making the £7m campaign a festive tradition in its own right. Using YouGov BrandIndex data, we can see the upsurge across a variety of metrics that the release of the advert created. The advert follows a proven [...]
Winter sports insurance: Have you got it covered? November 25, 2014 Not many policies will allow you to go off-piste without a qualified instructor NEARLY 40 per cent of winter sports holidaymakers head to the slopes without travel insurance, according to government figures. And 31 per cent have admitted to not checking their policy to ensure they’re covered. But despite all the small print, getting the [...]
Mince pies with a very Spanish twist by Salt Yard chef Ben Tish November 25, 2014 Ben Tish, executive chef of Salt Yard, Ember Yard, Opera Tavern and Dehesa talks mince pies. I was brought up on mince pies. My gran made them with puff pastry and they were amazing. After she passed away my parents switched over to M&S ones. I’ve always loved them and I’ve always cooked [...]