Bank of England braced for historic Super Thursday – London Report August 2, 2015 THIS WEEK includes s-called Super Thursday when the Bank of England’s policy announcement, meeting minutes from the monetary policy committee and the latest Inflation Report will – for the first time – all be released simultaneously. HSBC gets the week off with a bang today with interim results, Standard Life tomorrow and Legal & General [...]
The space age: Condeco’s Paul Statham talks trickle-down economics, expansion plans and why being a business leader feels so good August 2, 2015 Back in the early 1980s, the Statham family started an electronic security business in their garage. “We grew it into a fairly formidable company; we had 200 people working for us,” says Paul Statham, son, and now founder and chief executive of Condeco Software. The family sold Masco Security in 1999, in a multi-million pound [...]
Restaurant review: Is £38 the dearest burger in London? Sackville’s serves up x-rated food porn July 29, 2015 This week I ate a burger that cost £38. It was at new truffle-themed restaurant Sackville’s in Mayfair, and while it wasn’t the most expensive burger I’ve ever eaten – that dubious honour goes to Miami’s Bâoli which charged me $95 (£60) – it’s the most expensive I’ve had in this great city of ours. [...]
Bank of England’s Andy Haldane raises the stakes for UK companies as new speech challenges “shareholder-centric model” July 28, 2015 Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane has stepped up his case for an overhaul of UK corporate governance with the publication of a surprising new speech. In the previously unpublished speech, first delivered at the University of Edinburgh in May, Haldane argues for a “fundamental re-rooting of company law” to challenge the “shareholder-centric company [...]
Tesco’s ban on sugary drinks is fine – as long as the government keeps away and consumers can still vote with their feet July 28, 2015 As a libertarian, I don’t quite know what to think about Tesco’s decision to drop Ribena and other sugary drinks for kids. On its own, I can see the advantages. As part of a broader trend, it’s a little worrying. So why might Tesco be doing this? Let’s take it for granted that Tesco [...]
London food delivery startup Deliveroo takes away $70m series C funding from Greenoaks Capital, Index Ventures, Accel and Hoxton Ventures July 28, 2015 A London startup which delivers food from some of Britain's favourite high-street restaurants such as Wagamama and Gourmet Burger Kitchen straight to your door, has landed $70m (£45m) of new investment to expand internationally, including backing from the firm behind Just Eat. Deliveroo's series C round was led by Greenoaks Capital and existing investor Index [...]
Now Gett lets you order Veuve Clicquot champagne in London as it expands on-demand services July 27, 2015 Londoners will be able to order champagne and have a bottle delivered in just 10 minutes with a new service from taxi app Gett. The partnership with Veuve Clicquot will deliver champagne in the same way as ordering a taxi, as Gett explores a tranche of new product deliveries and on-demand services in a bid to [...]
Green & Black’s founder Craig Sams on his plans to get us drinking real kola beans with Gusto Cola July 26, 2015 Back in the 1980s few people even knew that cocoa came from a pod grown on a tree. Absurd though that sounds, even supermarket buyers were unaware of cocoa’s provenance. As an experiment, Craig Sams, a legend in the macrobiotic diet community and founder of organic food company Whole Earth, decided to have some [...]
Which countries eat the most ice cream in the world? Here’s the scoop July 23, 2015 Things are changing in the delicious world of ice cream. The Chinese are warming up to the icy delights of the classic treat and have just stolen the crown from the US as the biggest consumers of the treat in the world, licking up more than 5.9m litres of the stuff in 2014. The change [...]
Restaurant review: Be prepared to shell out for Crab Tavern July 21, 2015 Crab Tavern is the tenth restaurant to open at the City’s newest dining destination, Broadgate Circle. It’s now overflowing with the kind of high-end, high-turnover gastro-chains that private equity guys go nuts for: opening branches in the City completes a perfect capitalist ouroboros in which we can literally get rich off of our own appetites. [...]