Review: Rock Lobsta at Mahiki August 20, 2013 RESTAURANT 1 Dover St, Mayfair, W1S 4LD Tel: 020 7493 9529 FOOD Four Stars VALUE Three Stars ATMOSPHERE Three Stars Cost for two with drinks: £100 Once upon a time I worked for a newspaper in Bermuda called the Mid Ocean News. I say “worked” – we didn’t actually do very much. Every Friday we’d [...]
Booming tourism trade boosts Greece surplus August 19, 2013 GREECE’S booming summer tourism revenue has given a welcome boost to the cash-strapped country’s finances. Tourism, which is the country’s biggest foreign currency driver, rose 21 per cent year-on-year to €1.59bn (£1.36bn) for June, the first month of the summer holiday season. Surging visitor numbers also helped widen Greece’s current account surplus to €663m, from [...]
Thomson Local bought out of administration August 15, 2013 DIRECTORY services brand Thomson Local was bought out of administration by two serial entrepreneurs yesterday. Thomson Local, which sends out 22m copies of its UK business directory and maintains several websites, appointed Grant Thornton as administrator on Wednesday, following several tough years. The Hampshire-based firm posted a net loss of £732,000 for 2011, [...]
Pest control company tops FTSE 250 on better-than-expected results August 14, 2013 Pest control company Rentokil was the biggest riser on the FTSE 250 this morning, up over seven per cent on the news its adjusted pre-tax profits rose 7.9 per cent to £54.8m – beating analyst expectations of £50.9m. Despite pre-tax profits falling 18.7 per cent to £51.9m and conditions in continental Europe continuing to be [...]
John Lewis is set to create a new restaurant August 14, 2013 JOHN Lewis is poised to launch a new restaurant concept in a move to diversify its catering range and attract more customers into its department stores. Chief executive Andy Street said while John Lewis’ restaurants and cafeterias were profitable and provided good quality, “middle of the road” food, they were not “cutting edge” brands. “There [...]
Stonegate buys The Living Room August 13, 2013 Stonegate, Britain’s largest private managed pub group, swallowed up the Living Room brand from Premium Bars & Restaurants on Monday for around £10m. Stonegate was created in 2010 when its private equity owner TDR Capital bought 330 managed pubs from Mitchells & Butlers. In 2011 it merged with Town & City Pub Company and now [...]
Review: Joe’s Southern Kitchen & Bar August 13, 2013 RESTAURANT 34 King Street, Covent Garden Tel: 020 7240 4008 FOOD Three Stars VALUE Three Stars ATMOSPHERE Three Stars Cost for two without drinks: £45 Restaurant critics are like Eskimos: we lead isolated lives and are prone to eating seal blubber. No, that’s not it. We’re like Eskimos because we both have 20 words for [...]
Mitie makes positive start to the year with a growing order book August 12, 2013 OUTSOURCING firm Mitie yesterday said that it has “made a positive start to the year” and expects to achieve “good levels of organic growth” in the coming twelve months. The FTSE 250-listed company, which offers facilities, people and energy management services to businesses, has won a number of new contracts in the private and [...]
Retail bosses fight back after Labour attack August 11, 2013 HIGH street giants Tesco and Next have lashed out at Labour after the party branded them “unscrupulous employers” and claimed they preferred cheap Eastern European staff over British workers. Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant will today call out hiring procedures at the two firms as part of a wide-ranging attack on businesses that use [...]
John Lewis is set to create a new restaurant August 11, 2013 JOHN Lewis is poised to launch a new restaurant concept in a move to diversify its catering range and attract more customers into its department stores. Chief executive Andy Street said while John Lewis’ restaurants and cafeterias were profitable and provided good quality, “middle of the road” food, they were not “cutting edge” brands. [...]