The best places to splash the cash with discretion November 11, 2009 MARCUS Wareing recently told City A.M. that ever since the start of the financial crisis, the phones have been ringing off the hook of his restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel with enquiries about the private dining room. “People are spending money,” he said. “They just don’t particularly want to be seen doing it.” It seems [...]
Profits turn flaky for Weetabix but sales float higher on Bitesize launch November 11, 2009 CEREAL maker Weetabix saw its post-tax profits slide last year as it took a hit from restructuring costs and redundancy payments. The company, which also owns the Alpen muesli and Ready Brek porridge brands, reported total profits of £75.7m for 2008, down £2.3m year-on-year. The cost of overhauling its operations in Kettering and Corby dragged [...]
D&D to open London hotel November 11, 2009 D&D London, the company formerly known as Conran Restaurants, is marking its return to the hotel business with a new £50m boutique hotel in Moorgate. D&D, which is still 51 per cent owned by Sir Terence Conran, will work with property developer Frogmore to create a luxury 80-room hotel, which it hopes will receive planning [...]
Koffman’s pop-up proves that he’s still the king of London fine dining November 9, 2009 NOSTALGIA is a wonderful thing. When it was announced that Pierre Koffman would come out of retirement to run a restaurant on the roof of Selfridges for one week only, the phones rang off the hook with former customers who remembered his Chelsea restaurant Tante Claire, which closed several years ago. But the crowd wasn’t [...]
Wagamama halts expansion November 8, 2009 Wagamama, the canteen-style noodle bar chain, has said that it has temporarily halted its expansion plans, but is set to resume openings in the spring after a robust financial performance. The Japanese restaurant chain, which has 65 restaurants, said operating profits jumped 75 per cent to £7.1m for the year to April 2009 on sales [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 4, 2009 THE FINANCIAL TIMES OPEL U-TURN LEAVES GERMANY ANGRYGermany and Russia reacted furiously to General Motors’ surprise decision to keep Opel rather than sell it, throwing up fresh uncertainty about the future direction of one of Europe’s biggest carmakers. The news that GM’s board had abandoned the sale of Opel/Vauxhall to Canada’s Magna and Russia’s Sberbank [...]
Sun, sea and Arabian Delights November 1, 2009 THERE are many parts of the world about which I am pessimistic but Dubai, despite its recent economic woes, is not one of them. Nobody else in the Middle East has pulled off what Dubai has achieved: a peaceful, capitalist, multi-ethnic state based on commerce, property, finance, entertainment and tourism. While it has been engulfed [...]
DELOITTE CONSULTANT DUSTS OFF DANCING SHOES IN CINEMA DEBUT November 1, 2009 HERE at City A.M., we like to champion the interests of our dear parishioners, and there’s nothing The Capitalist likes better than hearing about one of the flock with aspirations in the glitzy world of showbiz. Step forward Sanjay Shah, a consultant at Deloitte, whose debut on the silver screen was shown across London for [...]
Bag yourself an apartment in the iconic Barbican October 29, 2009 WHEN it comes to residential property in the City, there is nowhere quite like the Barbican. Ever since it was built in the sixties, the brutalist masterpiece has been one of the most iconic buildings in the Square Mile. For those who work in the City there could hardly be a more convenient location – [...]
20-hour shifts are the recipe for success October 28, 2009 IT’S 9AM and Marcus Wareing looks very tired. We’re in the kitchen at his self-named Mayfair restaurant, the best in London, according to Harden’s Guide. It is unusual for a chef of Wareing’s fame and brand-power to be so involved in the kitchen, but he is nothing if not hands on. “This morning I’ve been [...]