Hitting Heights: Richard Downs October 31, 2005 He started the company as a theoretical case study for part of his MBA — then hired a staff of dedicated skiers to ensure a real-life peak performance. As stars of the dotcom era crashed and burned, one travel company bucked the trend to become one of Britain’s biggest online success stories. Founded seven years [...]
Rubies and icons come from Russia with love October 27, 2005 Annushka Ducas set up a jewellery company in 1990 to help her mother out with some cufflinks. Since then she and Links have come a long way. Annushka Ducas has come back from Russia with a jewellery collection. For a woman who wasn’t the founder of Links of London this would mean a major over-spend [...]
‘No talks’ at Whitbread October 26, 2005 The wind was knocked out of Whitbread’s sails yesterday after chief executive Alan Parker moved to quieten the takeover talk that has buoyed its shares. The leisure group was one of the biggest fallers of the day after Parker said there had been “no talks” with private or trade buyers about selling off any of [...]
Whitbread wields axe as speculators circle October 24, 2005 Whitbread is expected to reveal plans to axe a quarter of its head office work force tomorrow. As he reports disappointing interim figures on Tuesday, chief executive Alan Parker is expected to confirm that up to 250 jobs will go at the leisure group’s Luton headquarters. Parker is fighting to keep the disparate business together. [...]
What’s outside your window? October 13, 2005 The price of property is soaring in Thailand despite laws preventing foreigners owning land. Since the Asian tsunami struck on 26 December last year, the number of tourists visiting Thailand has fallen dramatically. About a year ago, 192 holiday flights landed at Phuket airport every week – last week that figure was only 35. Hotels [...]
Biggest show man in town October 13, 2005 Anthony Lyons started his property career as a junior in a London estate agent’s office and he went on to become one of the best-known moguls around. Every month thousands of people visit shows and exhibitions at Earls Court and Olympia. Millions more people know the names of the venues. But only a few people [...]