Just Eat takes a bite out of businesses in Italy, Spain, Mexico and Brazil February 5, 2016 Just Eat has taken a bite out of online takeaway rivals in Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico. The four businesses – La Nevera Roja in Spain, PizzaBo/HelloFood in Italy, Hello Food Brazil and Hello Food Mexico – cost the UK-listed firm €125m (£94.7m), which will be funded from cash resources, and gives Just Eat huge reach as it [...]
Private equity firms Blackstone and Catalyst win consent for Stratford Island scheme February 4, 2016 Plans for a major regeneration scheme at the centre of Stratford have been given the go-ahead by Newham council, paving the way for 600 new homes. Private equity firms Blackstone Real Estate Partners and Catalyst Capital have won planning permission to two tower blocks on the Stratford Centre site – one of 42 storeys and the other of 25 – [...]
Three Little Birds in Brixton Jamaican restaurant review and the Shuang Shuang Chinese hot pot conveyor belt disaster February 2, 2016 Last time I didn’t like a restaurant, someone got so cross they threatened to report me to the Independent Press Standards Organisation for the sheer gall of having an opinion, which, in this case, happened to be that their restaurant was rubbish. So in the interests of not making someone else cross, I shouldn’t write [...]
How Threadneedle Street’s M restaurant is bringing Japanese fishing tradition Ike Jime to London February 2, 2016 M restaurant's executive chef Michael Reid on being the first restaurant in London to make sashimi using Ike Jime king fish. Ike Jime King Fish Sashimi I was first introduced to the Ike Jime fishing method during my time in Melbourne and it is without a doubt the most ethical and sustainable way to fish [...]
Bloomberg innovators 2016 list: These are the most innovative businesses in the UK – From coffee creators to fintech leaders January 26, 2016 More than 50 businesses have been named the most innovative in Britain credited with changing the way we live, work and think. Leading fintech startups, creative coffee makers and bionic hand creators, are just some of those to have been chosen by a group of leading investors and entrepreneurs including Saul Klein and Rohan Silva. [...]
Santander invests £1.8m in London restaurant chain Rosa’s Thai cafe January 26, 2016 Santander has invested £1.8m into London restaurant chain Rosa's Thai cafe, to help it expand in the capital. The investment, including an £800,000 Growth Capital loan, will fund the opening of three new restaurants in 2016, first in Victoria, and then Brixton and Shoreditch. The company hopes the new restaurants will create 100 jobs over the next two [...]
Soulcycle, Insanity, CrossFit: Where do fitness fads and cults come from? January 25, 2016 Cult workout regimes are big business, whether it's Insanity's Shaun Thomson raking in millions or the cult of CrossFit recruiting evangelical members across the globe. We take a look at where they started. Insanity The Insanity workout was founded when BeachBody, a Californian fitness company, started searching for a charismatic trainer and came across Shaun Thomson, [...]
McDonald’s fills up on all day breakfast as fourth quarter sales rise January 25, 2016 McDonald’s has served up a five per cent jump in global like-for-like sales in the fourth quarter as efforts to turnaround its ailing US business showed signs of paying off. The fast food giant, which promoted former UK boss Steve Easterbrook to the top spot a year ago, said US fourth quarter comparable sales increased by 5.7 per cent, thanks in [...]
M Restaurant’s Martin Williams on Wagyu, division bells and building a brand January 25, 2016 There is something of the Midas touch about Martin Williams. Forty minutes into an interview about his restaurants, M Threadneedle Street and M Victoria Street – currently two of the capital’s trendiest hangouts – he mentions his previous life as an actor. Despite being successful on stage and TV in his early twenties, the on-off [...]
O2 arena plans for a new designer outlet win £185m backing from Lloyds Banking Group January 21, 2016 Lloyds Banking Group is backing the owners of the O2 arena in Greenwich with a £185m loan to finance the building of a new designer shopping outlet to rival Bicester Village and Wembley. The loan by Lloyds’ commercial banking arm will allow the O2’s owners AEG and Crosstree Real Estate, to push ahead with the [...]