Eat takes its third bite at the market as it is put up for sale October 10, 2010 SANDWICH shop chain Eat has been put on the market for the third time by its owners. The company, which has 100 stores and is planning to double that in the next two to four years, is expected to fetch more than £100m as interest from private equity groups mounts. The firm is being advised [...]
Visa pushes new mobile phone payment systems September 19, 2010 VISA will roll out a network that will allow its customers to pay for goods using their mobile phones in time for the 2012 Olympics. The world’s biggest payment processing firm hopes the new technology will allow it to corner the small transactions market, which is still dominated by cash purchases. The firm believes the [...]
Bridgepoint to buy jeweller August 1, 2010 Private equity firm Bridgepoint is in advanced talks to buy French jeweller Histoire d’Or from Silverfleet Capital. It is also understood to be interested in rival jewellery retailer Marc Orian – owned by Qualium – with a merger between the two targets the likely result. The combined retailers would have more than 300 stores and [...]
Waitrose in talks for EAT March 28, 2010 EAT, the sandwich chain favoured by City workers, could be sold within the next month to the upmarket supermarket giant Waitrose, City sources suggested yesterday. EAT was founded in 1996 by Niall and Faith MacArthur and now has over 30 branches in the City selling sandwiches, soups, pies and drinks. The husband and wife team [...]
Debt repayments drag coffee firm Pret A Manger to 33m losses September 6, 2009 SANDWICH chain Pret A Manger is struggling to pay its interest on its growing debt mountain, it has been revealed in figures filed by Companies House.Bridgepoint Capital, its private equity owner, saddled the group with debt during the boom time, but interest payments have now grown on its £325m borrowings. The eaterie, founded in 1986 [...]
Quality brands are becoming more popular again June 16, 2009 FOR a while we saw the march of the “value” brands, as the recession helped Aldi and co make advances on their more expensive rivals. The graph shows what actually happened to brand values. We have created two baskets of brands – seven associated with lower-end or “value-for-money’ (Aldi, Morrisons, Primark, Matalan, RyanAir, Walls, Subway), [...]
The winner from the tuna debacle? Nobu June 9, 2009 THE speed with which Pret a Manger and M&S have put to use The End of the Line, a film about the overfishing of bluefin tuna that hasn’t even been released yet, is astonishing. Another movie points the finger at our cruel, environment-wrecking ways and before you can say “skipjack”, the tuna sandwich is struck [...]
VETERAN BAR OWNER HANGS UP CITY APRON June 3, 2009 AFTER a lengthy 48-year spell in the City, it’s finally time to say goodbye to ship broker-turned-restaurateur David Hughes, who’s often been described one of the friendliest bar owners in the world. Hughes first came to the City in 1961, aged 15, working as a ship broker at the Baltic Exchange on St Mary Axe, [...]